A Nigerian lawyer based in Los Angeles, Paulinus Okoronkwo, has been found guilty of accepting a $2.1 million bribe from a Chinese oil company to influence drilling rights in Nigeria.
Okoronkwo, 58, popularly known as “Pollie,” was convicted on August 29 by a United States District Court in California after a four-day trial. The jury found him guilty on three counts of money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.
According to prosecutors, Okoronkwo collected the bribe in October 2015 while serving as General Manager of the upstream division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC, now NNPC Ltd.). The payment was made by Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of Sinopec, China’s state-owned oil giant.
The $2.1 million was wired to a trust account belonging to his Los Angeles law firm and disguised as legal consultancy fees. Prosecutors described the arrangement as a sham intended to conceal a bribe, noting that Addax was seeking to secure crude oil drilling rights in Nigeria worth billions of dollars.
Court filings also revealed that Addax executives who raised concerns over the transaction were dismissed, and false statements were made during an internal audit to cover up the deal.
Investigators showed that in November 2017, Okoronkwo used $983,200 from the illicit funds as a down payment for a house in Valencia, California. He also failed to report the $2.1 million payment on his 2015 tax returns.
In 2022, when questioned by federal agents, Okoronkwo claimed the funds belonged to a client and did not constitute personal income, an assertion later proven false.
US District Judge John F. Walter has scheduled sentencing for December 1. Okoronkwo faces up to 35 years in prison if maximum penalties are imposed—10 years for each count of money laundering, 10 years for obstruction of justice, and five years for tax evasion.
For now, he remains free on a $50,000 bond.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the IRS Criminal Investigation, with support from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. The prosecution team included Assistant US Attorneys Alexander Schwab, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division Nisha Chandran, and Alexander Su of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section.