US court jails ex-NNPC GM Okoronkwo 87 months over $2.1m bribery scheme

A United States district court has sentenced former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation executive, Paulinus Okoronkwo, to 87 months in prison for receiving a $2.1 million bribe linked to oil drilling rights.

Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-American and former general manager at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, was convicted in August 2025 on charges of transactional money laundering, tax evasion and obstruction of justice.

According to US prosecutors, he accepted the payment from Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of Sinopec, while overseeing the upstream division at NNPC.

Authorities said the money was wired in October 2015 to his law firm’s trust account in Los Angeles under the guise of consultancy fees but was actually a bribe intended to secure favourable drilling rights in Nigeria.

The presiding judge, John Walter, also ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and forfeit $1,039,997 — the net proceeds from the sale of a property linked to the illicit funds.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Addax executives allegedly falsified records to disguise the payment as legal fees, dismissed employees who raised concerns and misled auditors.

Investigators further revealed that Okoronkwo used nearly $1 million of the bribe money as a down payment on a home in Valencia, California, while failing to declare the income on his 2015 tax return.

A US court had earlier granted the government’s forfeiture application against the property in October 2025, finalising the seizure following his conviction.