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 in prison for receiving a $2.1 million bribe from Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of Sinopec, a Chinese state-owned energy conglomerate.
According to the US government, District Judge John Walter also ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and forfeit $1,039,997, representing proceeds from the sale of his California home.
In August 2025, Okoronkwo was found guilty of transactional money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors said that while serving as NNPC’s upstream division general manager, he accepted a $2.1 million payment in October 2015 from Addax Petroleum. The funds were wired to his law firm’s trust account in Los Angeles and disguised as consultancy fees, but were allegedly intended to secure favourable drilling rights in Nigeria.
Evidence presented in court showed that Addax executives falsified records to describe the payment as legal fees and allegedly misled auditors.
Authorities said Okoronkwo later used nearly $1 million of the funds as a down payment on a home in Valencia, California, without declaring the income on his 2015 tax return.
In October 2025, the court approved the forfeiture of the property located at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia, California, as part of the judgment.
