A district judge in the United States has sent Paulinus Okoronkwo, a former high-ranking official at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, to 87 months in federal prison for a bribery scheme involving a Chinese oil company that cost $2.1 million.
Okoronkwo, who used to be the general manager of the upstream branch of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which has since been reorganized, was found guilty of several crimes, including money laundering through transactions, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice, according to Daily Trust.
John Walter gave the sentence and told the former oil executive to pay the IRS $923,824 in reparation.
The court also ordered the loss of $1,039,997, which was the money made from the sale of a home connected to the illegal finances.
The payment came from Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of Sinopec, a Chinese state-owned oil company, according to US prosecutors.
The prosecutors told the court that the $2.1 million transfer, which was routed to Okoronkwo’s law business trust account in Los Angeles in October 2015, was falsely labeled as consulting fees.
However, investigators found that the money was meant to buy favorable drilling licenses in Nigeria.
During the trial, evidence suggested that corporate leaders may have changed internal documents to make the payment look like genuine legal costs.
Authorities also said that employees who asked about the deal were fired and that auditors were given false information.
Court documents showed that about $1 million of the bribe money was used to buy a house in Valencia, California.
The prosecutors also showed that Okoronkwo didn’t report the revenue on his 2015 tax return, which is what led to the tax evasion charge.
In a different decision last year, the court agreed with the federal government’s request to take away the property at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia, because it was bought with money that could be traced back to the illicit payment.
In August 2025, a federal tribunal in California declared Okoronkwo guilty.
The conviction was the end of a years-long investigation into corruption across borders involving contracts in the energy sector.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which has subsequently become a limited liability business as part of continuing reforms, has not made any public comments about the sentencing as of the time this report was filed.
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