*To Be Sentenced on Dec. 1
A NIGERIAN lawyer based in Los Angeles, United States, and a former executive of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Paulinus Okoronkwo, has been found guilty of receiving a $2.1million bribe from a Chinese oil company to secure drilling rights in Nigeria and convicted by A US Judge on August 29 after a four-day trial in California.
US District Judge, John F. Walter, has scheduled December 1 for a sentencing hearing, at which time 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.
Okoronkwo, 58, also known as “Pollie,” who is currently released on a $50,000 bond, was found guilty of three counts of money laundering, one count of tax evasion and one count of obstruction of justice after accepting the bribe while serving as an official of the Nigerian Natuional Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), now NNPCL.
Prosecutors told the court that Okoronkwo, a dual US-Nigerian citizen, collected the payment in 2015 while serving as general manager of the upstream division of the NNPC, whereas as a public officer, he owed a duty of loyalty to Nigeria’s government, the court said.
In October 2015, Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of Chinese state-owned oil giant, Sinopec, paid a bribe to Okoronkwo in exchange for his influence in securing more favourable financial terms relating to its crude oil drilling in Nigeria, the court ruled.
Evidence showed that Addax wired the funds to a trust account in the name of Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles law firm under the guise of legal consultancy.
Prosecutors described the agreement as a sham designed to cover up the bribe.
At the time, Addax was seeking to protect its lucrative drilling rights in Nigeria, which prosecutors said were worth billions of dollars.
According to the court, Addax, in an attempt to cover up the bribe, fired executives who raised concerns about the payment’s legitimacy and lied about the transaction during an audit, the court said.
Investigators disclosed that in November 2017, Okoronkwo used $983,200 of the illegally obtained funds to make a down payment on a house in Valencia, California, and failed to declare the money on his 2015 tax returns.
Then in 2022, he lied to federal agents, insisting the money was client funds and not his income.
