Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, a former official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has been jailed in the United States over a $2.1 million bribe.
Okoronkwo A U.S. federal court has convicted a Nigerian-American and of accepting among other offenses.
Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, who once oversaw NNPC’s upstream division, was found guilty of transactional money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
According to U.S. prosecutors, Okoronkwo received the $2.1 million from Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of China’s state-owned Sinopec, during his tenure at NNPC. The payment, sent in October 2015 to a trust account linked to his Los Angeles law firm, was masked as a fee for legal consultancy services but was, in reality, a bribe meant to influence drilling rights in Nigeria.
During a four-day trial held last month, the prosecution presented evidence showing that Addax executives falsified documents, fired employees who raised alarms, and gave misleading information to auditors in an attempt to cover up the illicit payment.
Although Okoronkwo had been practicing immigration, family, and personal injury law in Koreatown, Los Angeles, he reportedly used a portion of the bribe—nearly $1 million—as a down payment for a home in Valencia, California, and failed to report the funds on his 2015 federal tax return.
A statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California detailed the extent of the scheme:
“According to the indictment, Addax calculated that it stood to lose billions of dollars if its favourable drilling rights were not secured,” the statement reads.
“The engagement letter that Addax signed that month with Okoronkwo’s law office — with a fake address in Lagos, Nigeria — was a ruse intended to conceal the fact that its payment to Okoronkwo was a bribe in exchange for his influence in securing more favourable financial terms relating to its crude oil drilling in Nigeria.
“To conceal the illegal bribery scheme, Addax falsely characterised the $2.1 million payment as a payment for legal services, lied to an auditor about the payment, and fired executives who questioned the payment’s propriety.
“To create the false impression that the bribe payment constituted client funds, Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo received the payment in his law firm’s IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account).
“In November 2017, Okoronkwo used $983,200 of the illegally obtained funds to make a down payment on a house in Valencia.
“Okoronkwo omitted the $2.1 million bribe payment from his 2015 federal income tax return.
“He also obstructed justice in June 2022 when he lied to federal investigators when he told them he did not use any of the $2.1 million to purchase a house and that the money represented client funds rather than income to his law office.”
U.S. District Judge John Walter has scheduled the sentencing hearing for December 1.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, “Okoronkwo will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count, up to 10 years in federal prison for the obstruction of justice count, and up to five years in federal prison for the tax evasion count.”