US court sentences former NNPC official to 87 months in prison for bribery

A former official of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC), Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, has been sentenced to 87 months in prison in the United States after being found guilty of receiving a $2.1 million bribe from a Swiss oil firm while serving at Nigeria’s state-owned oil company.

Okoronkwo, 58, also known as “Pollie,” was ordered to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and to forfeit $1,039,997, representing proceeds from the sale of a property linked to laundering the illicit funds.

The sentence was imposed by US District Judge John F. Walter after a four-day trial in August 2025, according to a statement released on Thursday by the United States Department of Justice.

According to court filings, a jury convicted Okoronkwo on three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.

His legal troubles began in January 2024, when prosecutors in the Central District of California charged him with multiple offences, including conducting financial transactions involving proceeds of unlawful activity, evading taxes, and obstructing a federal investigation.

A dual US–Nigerian citizen, Okoronkwo practised law in Los Angeles in the areas of immigration, family, and personal injury while simultaneously serving as General Manager of NNPC’s Upstream Division a position that made him a foreign public official with fiduciary obligations to the Nigerian government.

Prosecutors said that in October 2015, Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of Sinopec, transferred $2,105,263 to an Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account belonging to Okoronkwo’s law firm. Although the payment was described as consultancy fees for negotiating drilling rights in Nigeria, authorities alleged it was intended to secure favourable terms for Addax’s oil operations.

Investigators further found that documents associated with the transaction contained a fictitious Lagos address to obscure its true purpose. Portions of the funds were later routed through IPO Capital LLC and used for personal expenses, including the purchase of a vehicle and a residential property in Valencia, California.

Okoronkwo was also found to have failed to declare the $2.1 million on his 2015 federal tax return. In June 2022, prosecutors said he obstructed justice by falsely telling investigators that the funds were client monies rather than income used for property purchases.
Following the case, Okoronkwo was dismissed from NNPC now operating as NNPCL and his law licence was suspended by the State Bar of California in January 2026.