NEWS
U.S. District Court Jails Former NNPC General Manager, Paulinus Okoronkwo for $2.1 Million Addax Bribery Scheme, Orders Restitution and Forfeiture of California Property
A United States District Court has sentenced Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-American and former General Manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (now NNPC Limited), to 87 months imprisonment for his role in a multi-million-dollar bribery and money laundering scheme linked to international oil giant Addax Petroleum.
The sentence follows his conviction over a $2.1 million bribe he received from Addax Petroleum, a Switzerland-based subsidiary of Sinopec, one of China’s largest state-owned petroleum and gas conglomerates.
In August 2025, Okoronkwo was found guilty of transactional money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice after a detailed prosecution by U.S. authorities. Prosecutors established that while serving as General Manager of NNPC’s upstream division, he abused his strategic position by facilitating favourable drilling rights for Addax Petroleum in Nigeria in exchange for illicit payments.
Court records showed that in October 2015, the $2.1 million payment was wired into the trust account of Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles-based law firm. The transaction was disguised as consultancy fees but was, in reality, a bribe intended to influence official decisions concerning oil exploration rights.
U.S. prosecutors further revealed that executives of Addax Petroleum falsified corporate records to conceal the payment as legitimate legal fees. Internal employees who reportedly questioned the transaction were dismissed, while misleading information was supplied to auditors to prevent detection.
Despite his public role as a legal practitioner specializing in immigration, family, and personal injury law in Koreatown, Los Angeles, Okoronkwo allegedly diverted nearly $1 million from the illicit funds as a down payment on a residential property in Valencia, California. He also failed to declare the bribe as income in his 2015 tax filings, leading to additional tax evasion charges.
Delivering judgment, District Judge John Walter ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for unpaid taxes.
In addition, the court granted a forfeiture application filed by the U.S. government, resulting in the confiscation of $1,039,997 representing the net proceeds from the sale of Okoronkwo’s property located at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia, California 91381.
The forfeiture order was officially granted in October 2025, further cementing the financial consequences of the conviction.
The case underscores growing international scrutiny of corruption in the global energy sector and highlights the long reach of U.S. anti-money laundering and anti-corruption enforcement mechanisms. It also signals intensified cooperation in tracking illicit financial flows tied to public officials and multinational corporations.
With an 87-month custodial sentence, significant restitution, and asset forfeiture, the judgment marks a decisive legal reckoning in a case that spans Nigeria’s oil sector and the international financial system.