A United States court has convicted Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-American and former general manager of NNPC Limited, for receiving a $2.1 million bribe.
Gatekeepers News reports that Okoronkwo was found guilty of transactional money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors said that while serving as general manager of NNPC’s upstream division, he abused his office by accepting a $2.1 million payment from Addax Petroleum, a Switzerland-based subsidiary of China’s Sinopec.
The payment, wired in October 2015 to his Los Angeles law firm’s trust account, was disguised as consultancy fees but was in fact a bribe to secure favourable drilling rights in Nigeria.
During a four-day trial last month, prosecutors presented evidence showing that Addax executives falsified records to classify the payment as legal fees, dismissed internal staff who raised concerns, and misled auditors.
Okoronkwo, who practised immigration, family, and personal injury law in Koreatown, Los Angeles, later used nearly $1 million of the bribe money to make a down payment on a home in Valencia, California. He also failed to declare the income on his 2015 tax return.
The US attorney’s office for the Central District of California said, “According to the indictment, Addax calculated that it stood to lose billions of dollars if its favourable drilling rights were not secured.”
“The engagement letter that Addax signed that month with Okoronkwo’s law office — with a fake address in Lagos, Nigeria — was a ruse intended to conceal the fact that its payment to Okoronkwo was a bribe in exchange for his influence in securing more favourable financial terms relating to its crude oil drilling in Nigeria.”
“To conceal the illegal bribery scheme, Addax falsely characterised the $2.1 million payment as a payment for legal services, lied to an auditor about the payment, and fired executives who questioned the payment’s propriety.”
“To create the false impression that the bribe payment constituted client funds, Okoronkwo received the payment in his law firm’s IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account).”
“In November 2017, Okoronkwo used $983,200 of the illegally obtained funds to make a down payment on a house in Valencia.
Okoronkwo omitted the $2.1 million bribe payment from his 2015 federal income tax return.”
“He also obstructed justice in June 2022 when he lied to federal investigators when he told them he did not use any of the $2.1 million to purchase a house and that the money represented client funds rather than income to his law office.”
“Okoronkwo will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count, up to 10 years in federal prison for the obstruction of justice count, and up to five years in federal prison for the tax evasion count.”
The US attorney’s office added that John Walter, the district judge, has scheduled December 1 for sentencing hearing.
