A United States district court has sentenced Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo. A former general manager at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (now NNPC Limited), to 87 months in prison. Okoronkwo found guilty of accepting a $2.1 million bribe tied to oil drilling rights in Nigeria.
Okoronkwo, 58, holds dual citizenship in Nigeria and the United States. He convicted for receiving the payment from Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of China’s state-owned energy company, Sinopec.
Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution
According to a statement from the US Department of Justice on February 23, Judge John F. Walter also ordered the former NNPC executive Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution. To the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to forfeit assets linked to the crime. These assets include $1,039,997, the net proceeds from the sale of a home involved in laundering the bribe money.
The statement revealed that after a four-day trial in August 2025. A jury found Okoronkwo guilty of three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.
The NNPC Executive Accepted a $2.1 million payment from Addax Petroleum
Prosecutors stated that Okoronkwo misused his position as general manager in the upstream division of Nigeria’s national oil company. He accepted a $2.1 million payment from Addax Petroleum. Which wired in October 2015 to the trust account of his Los Angeles-based law firm. The payment falsely labeled as consultancy fees but was. In reality, a bribe to secure favorable drilling rights in Nigeria.
Investigators uncovered that Addax executives falsified internal records to disguise the payment as legitimate legal fees. They also dismissed employees who raised concerns and misled auditors about the transaction.
Okoronkwo reportedly used nearly $1 million from the bribe as a down payment on a home in Valencia, California. And failed to report the income on his 2015 tax return. The court later ordered the forfeiture of $1,039,997 from the sale of the Valencia property, which tied to the laundering of the funds.
In October 2025, the US court approved the government’s request to seize the Valencia property as part of the case.
