US Court Jails Ex-NNPC Boss 7+ Years Over $2.1m Bribe from Chinese Oil Firm

A former General Manager at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, has been handed an 87-month prison sentence by a United States federal court for accepting a $2.1 million bribe while in public office.

The 58-year-old dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States, who practised law in Los Angeles, was sentenced by District Judge John Walter at the Central District of California. The court also ordered him to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and forfeit $1,039,997—the proceeds from selling a house purchased with laundered bribe money.

According to the US Attorney General's Office, Okoronkwo, also known as "Pollie," resided in Rancho Cucamonga and operated a legal practice in Koreatown handling immigration, family, and personal injury cases. His conviction stems from his role in securing favourable drilling rights for Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of Chinese state-owned energy giant Sinopec.

Court documents reveal that in October 2015, Addax Petroleum wired $2,105,263 to an Interest on Lawyers' Trust Account (IOLTA) held by Okoronkwo's law firm. The payment was disguised as consultancy fees for negotiating a settlement agreement with NNPC regarding Addax's drilling rights in Nigeria. Prosecutors noted that Addax stood to lose billions of dollars without favourable terms.

The engagement letter, which bore a fake Lagos address, was designed to mask the true nature of the transaction—a bribe exchanged for Okoronkwo's influence as a public official overseeing Nigeria's upstream petroleum sector.

Between February 2016 and 2018, Okoronkwo allegedly moved funds from the IOLTA to IPO Capital LLC, using the money for personal expenses, vehicle purchases, and property acquisition. In November 2017, he reportedly paid $983,200 as a down payment on a residence in Valencia, California.

The case against him included three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion for omitting the bribe from his 2015 federal tax return, and one count of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors stated that in June 2022, Okoronkwo lied to federal investigators, claiming the $2.1 million represented client funds rather than income and denying he used any portion to purchase property.

A jury found him guilty in August 2025 after a four-day trial. The State Bar of California suspended his law licence in January 2026. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and IRS Criminal Investigation led the probe, with assistance from the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs.

Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander B. Schwab, Nisha Chandran, and Alexander Su prosecuted the case. Okoronkwo's conviction marks another instance of US authorities pursuing foreign corruption under anti-money laundering statutes, holding public officials accountable regardless of borders.