A former senior official of Nigeria’s state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has been sentenced to 87 months (more than seven years) in a United States federal prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar bribery and money laundering conspiracy.
Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, who served as General Manager in the upstream division of the NNPC, was handed the term by US District Judge John Walter in the Central District of California on Wednesday, February 25, 2026. The sentence followed his conviction by a federal jury on multiple counts, including money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
According to court documents and the US Department of Justice, Okoronkwo accepted a $2.1 million bribe in October 2015 from Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of China’s Sinopec Group. The payment was disguised as legitimate “consultancy fees” paid to a Los Angeles law firm owned by Okoronkwo. Prosecutors proved the funds were a bribe paid in exchange for Okoronkwo’s influence in securing more favourable financial terms for Addax’s oil drilling rights and operations in Nigeria.
“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,” US authorities stated.
The bribe money was subsequently laundered through IPO Capital LLC, a company controlled by Okoronkwo. Investigators traced nearly $1 million of the proceeds to the down payment on a family home in Valencia, California, purchased in 2017. Additional funds were used for personal expenses, including the purchase of a luxury car.
Okoronkwo also failed to report the $2.1 million on his 2015 US tax return and later obstructed justice by lying to federal investigators, claiming the money represented legitimate client funds rather than personal income.
As a dual US-Nigerian citizen and a former foreign public official, Okoronkwo owed a fiduciary duty to the Nigerian government while serving at NNPC, which partners with foreign oil companies to develop the country’s fossil fuel and natural gas reserves. The court emphasized that his actions constituted corruption by a public official.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Walter ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to forfeit more than $1 million traced to the sale of the Valencia property bought with laundered bribe proceeds.
In January 2026, prior to sentencing, the State Bar of California suspended Okoronkwo’s law licence in response to the conviction.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and IRS Criminal Investigation, with prosecution handled by the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. US authorities described the conviction as part of a broader effort to combat foreign corruption and financial crimes involving public officials from other countries.
The sentencing underscores the long arm of US anti-corruption enforcement under laws such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and related money laundering statutes, even when the underlying bribery occurs overseas.
No immediate reaction was available from Nigerian authorities or the NNPC regarding the case or its implications for ongoing anti-corruption efforts in the country’s oil sector.
