US Court Seizes Ex-NNPC Boss’s $2.1m California Mansion Over Massive Bribery Scandal

A United States District Court has ordered the interim forfeiture of a California property belonging to Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-American and former General Manager at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), after convicting him of financial crimes linked to a $2.1 million bribery scheme.

Okoronkwo was found guilty in September of transactional money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.

According to prosecutors, while serving as the NNPC’s Upstream Division General Manager, Okoronkwo received a $2.1 million payment from Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of China’s state-owned Sinopec. The payment—wired in October 2015 to his law firm’s trust account in Los Angeles—was disguised as consultancy fees but was actually a bribe to secure favorable drilling rights in Nigeria.

Court documents cited by The Cable revealed that Addax executives falsified company records, fired employees who questioned the transaction, and misled auditors to conceal the bribe.

After leaving NNPC, Okoronkwo practiced law in Los Angeles, specializing in immigration, family, and personal injury cases. Prosecutors said he used nearly $1 million from the illicit funds as a down payment for a property located in Valencia, California, and failed to declare the money in his 2015 tax filings.

On October 3, Judge John Walter approved the U.S. government’s application to forfeit the Valencia property at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia, CA 91381.

“For the reasons set out below, any right, title, and interest of the defendant in the following described property (hereinafter, the ‘Forfeitable Property’) is hereby forfeited to the United States,” the court order read.

The ruling linked the property directly to Okoronkwo’s violations of 18 U.S.C. §1957, which covers transactional money laundering. The judge authorized the U.S. Attorney General to seize and sell the asset, with the proceeds to be retained by the government.

The court also issued a public notice inviting anyone with a legal claim to the property—described as “Tract Number 45433, Lot 12, APN 2826-143-004 (CAIS No. 24-FBI-001775)”—to file within 60 days.

Okoronkwo is scheduled to be sentenced on December 1, where he faces penalties for money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.