US court convicts ex-NNPC manager over $2.1m bribe linked to Chinese oil giant

A federal jury in the United States has convicted a former General Manager, Upstream Division at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), of accepting a $2.1 million bribe from a Chinese oil company in exchange for favorable drilling terms in Nigeria.

A report by Premium Times on Wednesday said Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-born lawyer based in Los Angeles, was found guilty on 29 August after a four-day trial in California of three counts of money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstructing justice.

According to prosecutors, the dual US-Nigerian citizen took the money in 2015 while holding the position of general manager in NNPC’s upstream division. As a public servant, the court said, he was expected to act in the interest of Nigeria’s government.

The bribe was allegedly paid in October 2015 by Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of Chinese state-owned oil company Sinopec, to secure more favourable financial terms for its crude oil operations in Nigeria.

Court documents revealed that Addax wired the funds into a trust account under Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles law firm, disguising it as a consultancy fee. Prosecutors described the deal as a cover-up for the illicit payment.

They added that Addax, which stood to benefit from drilling rights worth billions of dollars, even dismissed executives who questioned the transaction and later misled auditors about the deal.

Investigations showed that in November 2017, Okoronkwo allegedly used nearly $1 million of the proceeds to make a down payment on a house in Valencia, California, and failed to declare the illicit income in his 2015 tax filings. In 2022, he reportedly lied to federal agents, claiming the funds were client money.

US District Judge John F. Walter has set 1 December for sentencing. Okoronkwo faces up to 10 years in prison for each money laundering conviction, another 10 years for obstruction of justice, and five years for tax evasion. He is currently free on a $50,000 bond.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, with assistance from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. Prosecutors on the case include Assistant US Attorney Alexander Schwab, Deputy Criminal Division Chief Nisha Chandran of the Major Frauds Section, and Alexander Su of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section.

(PREMIUM TIMES)