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US Court Slams Ex-NNPC Official With Conviction In Explosive $2.1M Bribery Scandal
A United States District Court has convicted Nigerian-born lawyer, Paulinus “Pollie” Okoronkwo, based in Los Angeles, for accepting a $2.1 million bribe from a Chinese oil company to secure drilling rights in Nigeria.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶
The 58-year-old former NNPC upstream division General Manager was found guilty on three counts of money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice. The verdict was delivered on August 29 after a four-day trial in California.
Prosecutors revealed that in October 2015, Okoronkwo collected the bribe from Addax Petroleum, a Swiss arm of Chinese state-owned oil giant Sinopec, disguising the money as consultancy fees paid into his Los Angeles law firm’s trust account. They described the deal as a “sham agreement” to conceal corruption and protect oil rights worth billions of dollars.
Evidence showed that in 2017, Okoronkwo spent nearly $1 million of the illicit funds as a down payment on a California home and failed to declare the money in his tax returns. He later lied to federal investigators, claiming the funds belonged to a client.
US District Judge John F. Walter has set December 1 for sentencing, where Okoronkwo faces up to 35 years in prison—10 years each for the money laundering charges and obstruction, plus five years for tax evasion. He is currently free on a $50,000 bond.
The case was investigated by the 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, Nisha Chandran, and Alexander Su.
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