By Newspot Nigeria Global Desk
A former senior official of Nigeria’s state-owned oil company has been sentenced to 87 months in a United States federal prison for receiving a $2.1 million bribe linked to oil drilling rights, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, 58, also known as “Pollie,” was sentenced in Los Angeles by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter. The court also ordered him to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and to forfeit $1,039,997, described by prosecutors as the net proceeds from the sale of a home involved in laundering the bribe funds.
Okoronkwo, a dual U.S.–Nigerian citizen and a Los Angeles-area lawyer, served as general manager of the upstream division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). U.S. prosecutors said he accepted the bribe while acting as a foreign public official, in connection with negotiating favourable drilling terms tied to a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned oil company.
At the conclusion of a four-day trial, a jury in August 2025 found Okoronkwo guilty of three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors said that in October 2015, Addax Petroleum, described as a Switzerland-based subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned energy conglomerate, wired $2,105,263 to an Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account associated with Okoronkwo’s law firm. The payment was presented as compensation for consultancy work on drilling rights disputes, but prosecutors said it was a bribe intended to influence official decisions.
The Justice Department said the arrangement included an engagement letter bearing a fake Lagos address, which prosecutors described as a concealment tactic. Funds were later routed through a company named IPO Capital LLC and used for family expenses, a vehicle, and a California property, including nearly $1m in down payments made in 2017, prosecutors said.
Okoronkwo was also accused of failing to report the bribe as income on his 2015 federal tax return, and of misleading investigators in June 2022 about whether the funds were used to purchase property, the Justice Department said.
The State Bar of California suspended Okoronkwo’s law licence in January 2026, according to prosecutors. U.S. authorities said the investigation involved the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation.
Newspot Nigeria.
