Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, a former senior official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has been sentenced to 87 months in a United States federal prison for his involvement in a $2.1 million bribery and money laundering scheme tied to oil drilling rights in Nigeria.
Okoronkwo, 58 - often called Pauli - who once headed the upstream division of the state-owned oil company, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Walter in the Central District of California. Beyond the prison term, the court ordered him to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to forfeit $1,039,997 - proceeds traced to the sale of a home purchased with laundered funds.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a jury in August 2025 found Okoronkwo guilty after a four-day trial on three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors said that while serving as a top executive at NNPC, Okoronkwo accepted a $2,105,263 payment in October 2015 from Addax Petroleum, a Switzerland-based subsidiary of Chinese state-owned energy conglomerate Sinopec. The payment was wired into an Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA) belonging to his Los Angeles-based law firm.
Although the funds were described as consultancy fees for negotiating a settlement over Addax’s drilling rights in Nigeria, U.S. authorities said the arrangement was a sham designed to conceal a bribe. An engagement letter bearing a false Lagos address was allegedly used to legitimise the transaction.
Investigators said Addax risked losing billions of dollars if it failed to secure favourable drilling terms, giving it a strong incentive to influence negotiations. To disguise the payment, the company reportedly labelled it as legal fees, misled auditors about its purpose, and removed executives who raised concerns.
After receiving the funds, Okoronkwo allegedly transferred portions of the money between 2016 and 2018 to a company known as IPO Capital LLC. From there, he used the proceeds to cover personal expenses, including family costs, the purchase of a car, and a substantial down payment on a home in Valencia, California. Court records show that $983,200 from the illicit funds was used toward the property purchase in November 2017.
Authorities also established that Okoronkwo failed to declare the $2.1 million payment on his 2015 federal income tax return. In June 2022, he further compounded his legal troubles by lying to federal investigators, claiming he had not used the money to buy property and insisting it represented legitimate client funds rather than income to his law firm.
Okoronkwo, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States who practised immigration, family, and personal injury law in Los Angeles, was suspended by the State Bar of California in January 2026.
The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation, with support from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. Prosecutors described the conviction as a clear message that foreign officials who exploit public office for personal gain can be held accountable under U.S. law.
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