A former official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, has been sentenced to 87 months’ imprisonment in the United States following his conviction for accepting a $2.1 million bribe from a Swiss oil company while serving at the state-owned oil firm.
Okoronkwo, 58, also known as “Pollie,” was additionally ordered to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and to forfeit $1,039,997—the net proceeds from the sale of a property linked to laundering the bribe.
The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge John F. Walter following a four-day trial in August 2025, according to a statement released on the US Department of Justice website on Thursday.
“A Los Angeles-area lawyer was sentenced today to 87 months in federal prison for receiving a $2.1 million bribe while serving as an officer of Nigeria’s state-owned oil company in connection with negotiating favourable drilling rights for a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned oil company,” the statement read.
Court documents revealed that a jury found Okoronkwo guilty of three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.
Okoronkwo’s legal troubles began in January 2024 when the US Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California indicted him on multiple charges, including engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
A dual US–Nigerian citizen, Okoronkwo practised immigration, family, and personal injury law in Los Angeles while serving as General Manager of the Upstream Division of NNPC, a role that classified him as a foreign public official with fiduciary duties to the Nigerian government.
According to the indictment, in October 2015, Addax Petroleum, a Switzerland-based subsidiary of Sinopec, wired $2,105,263 to an Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA) belonging to Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles law firm. While the payment was labelled as consultancy fees for negotiating drilling rights in Nigeria, prosecutors alleged it was a bribe intended to secure more favourable terms for Addax’s crude oil operations.
Investigators further found that the engagement letter between Addax and Okoronkwo’s firm, bearing a fictitious Lagos address, was designed to conceal the true nature of the transaction. Portions of the funds were transferred to a company known as IPO Capital LLC and used for personal expenses, including purchasing a vehicle and a residential property in Valencia, California.
Okoronkwo also allegedly omitted the $2.1 million from his 2015 federal income tax return, giving rise to the tax evasion charge. In June 2022, he obstructed justice by falsely telling federal investigators that the funds were client monies rather than income used for property purchases.
Following the scandal, Okoronkwo was dismissed from NNPC (now NNPCL), and the State Bar of California suspended his law licence in January 2026.
