Los Angeles, USA – A United States district court has sentenced Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-American and former general manager at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, to 87 months in prison for receiving a $2.1 million bribe from Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of China’s Sinopec.
Okay News reports that District Judge John Walter also ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and forfeit $1,039,997, representing net proceeds from the sale of a residential property he owned in Valencia, California. According to US prosecutors, Okoronkwo abused his position as general manager in NNPC’s upstream division by accepting the payment from Addax Petroleum’s Switzerland-based subsidiary in October 2015.
The funds were wired to his law firm’s trust account in Los Angeles and disguised as consultancy fees, but prosecutors said the payment was in fact a bribe intended to secure favourable drilling rights in Nigeria. Evidence presented at trial showed that Addax executives falsified internal records to classify the payment as legal fees, dismissed employees who raised compliance concerns, and provided misleading information to auditors.
Okoronkwo, who later practised immigration, family, and personal injury law in Koreatown, Los Angeles, used nearly $1 million of the bribe proceeds as a down payment on his Valencia home. He also failed to declare the income on his 2015 tax return. In October 2025, a US court granted the government’s forfeiture application against his property.
The case forms part of broader US enforcement efforts targeting foreign corruption and financial crimes involving American financial systems. The sentence sends a strong signal about consequences for foreign bribery and money laundering that touches US jurisdiction. International cooperation in prosecuting foreign bribery cases continues to strengthen as authorities coordinate across borders.
