A federal jury in Los Angeles has convicted 58-year-old Nigerian lawyer, Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, also known as “Pollie,” for accepting a $2.1 million bribe while serving as a senior officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL).
The verdict, announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, found Okoronkwo guilty of three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice. He faces up to 25 years in federal prison at his sentencing, scheduled for December 1, 2025.
Prosecutors said Okoronkwo, who ran a law practice in Koreatown, Los Angeles, and is a dual citizen of Nigeria and the U.S., exploited his role as general manager of NNPC’s upstream division. In October 2015, Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of Chinese state-owned Sinopec, wired $2,105,263 to his law firm’s Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA). The payment was disguised as legal fees but was, in fact, a bribe to secure favorable drilling rights in Nigeria.
Evidence showed Okoronkwo used nearly $1 million of the illicit funds as a down payment on a Valencia home in 2017. He failed to report the money on his 2015 tax returns and later lied to federal investigators, claiming the funds were legitimate client payments.
The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation with support from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander B. Schwab, Nisha Chandran, and Alexander Su.