A former official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, has been sentenced to 87 months in prison in the United States after being convicted of accepting a $2.1 million bribe from a Swiss oil company.
Okoronkwo, 58, also known as “Pollie,” was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter following a four-day trial in August 2025, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
He was also ordered to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and to forfeit $1,039,997, representing proceeds from the sale of property linked to laundering the bribe.
Prosecutors said a jury found Okoronkwo guilty of three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion and one count of obstruction of justice.
Authorities said Okoronkwo, a dual U.S.-Nigerian citizen, worked as a lawyer in Los Angeles while serving as general manager of the upstream division of NNPC, a role that classified him as a foreign public official.
According to court documents, the case stemmed from a 2015 transaction in which Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of Sinopec, wired $2.1 million to an interest on lawyers’ trust account belonging to Okoronkwo’s law firm.
While the payment was described as consultancy fees for negotiating drilling rights in Nigeria, prosecutors said it was a bribe intended to secure favorable terms for the company’s crude oil operations.
Investigators said documents linked to the deal, including an engagement letter bearing a false Lagos address, were used to conceal the nature of the transaction. Portions of the funds were later transferred to a company identified as IPO Capital LLC and used for personal expenses, including the purchase of a vehicle and a residential property in Valencia, California.
Prosecutors also said Okoronkwo failed to report the $2.1 million on his 2015 federal income tax return, leading to the tax evasion charge.
In addition, he was found to have obstructed justice in June 2022 by falsely telling federal investigators that the funds were client money rather than income used for personal purchases.
Following the case, Okoronkwo was dismissed from NNPC, now known as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, and had his law license suspended by the State Bar of California in January 2026.
