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 over his role in a $2.1 million oil bribery scheme linked to drilling rights in Nigeria.
Okoronkwo, 58, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States, was convicted in connection with payments made by Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of China’s state-owned energy company Sinopec.
Details of the sentencing were disclosed in a statement published by the United States Department of Justice on Monday, February 23. The trial judge, John F. Walter, also ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and to forfeit assets connected to the proceeds of the crime.
According to the statement, a jury found Okoronkwo guilty in August 2025 following a four-day trial on charges including three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors told the court that Okoronkwo abused his position while serving in the upstream division of Nigeria’s national oil company by accepting a $2.1 million payment allegedly intended to secure favourable oil drilling rights.
Investigators said the funds were transferred in October 2015 into the trust account of Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles-based law firm and were falsely presented as consultancy fees. Authorities later determined that the payment constituted a bribe.
Court filings indicated that executives linked to the paying company allegedly falsified internal records to portray the transaction as legitimate legal services and provided misleading information to auditors.
Prosecutors further stated that nearly $1 million from the illicit funds was used as a down payment on a residential property in Valencia, California. Okoronkwo was also found to have failed to declare the income in his 2015 tax return.
As part of the sentencing, the court ordered the forfeiture of $1,039,997, representing proceeds from the sale of the property connected to the laundering of the funds. The Valencia property had earlier been seized following a government forfeiture application approved in October 2025.
The case forms part of broader efforts by United States authorities to prosecute international corruption and financial crimes involving public officials and multinational energy transactions.