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| Paulinus Okoronkwo. |
The United States District Court has sentenced Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian American, to 87 months in prison for receiving a $2.1 million bribe from Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of Sinopec, a Chinese state-owned petroleum and gas conglomerate.
Okoronkwo is a former general manager of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), now NNPC Limited.
In a statement, the US government said John Walter,
the district judge, ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution to the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The judge also ordered the forfeiture of $1,039,997,
the net proceeds from the sale of a home belonging to the ex-NNPC general
manager.
In August 2025, Okonkwo was found guilty of
transactional money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
According to U.S. prosecutors, while serving as NNPC’s
upstream division general manager, Okoronkwo abused his position by accepting a
$2.1 million payment from Addax Petroleum, the Switzerland-based subsidiary of
Sinopec.
Okoronkwo, who practised immigration, family, and
personal injury law in Koreatown, was said to have later used nearly $1 million
of the bribe money as a down payment on a home in Valencia, California, while
failing to declare the income on his 2015 tax return.
In October 2025, a U.S. court granted the forfeiture
application filed by the U.S. government against Okoronkwo’s property.
The property is located at 25340 Twin Oaks Place,
Valencia, California 91381.
Culled from the Guardian Newspapers.
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