A former general manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), now NNPC Limited, is facing up to 10 years in prison in the United States after being convicted of accepting a $2.1 million bribe.
The ex-official, Okoronkwo, was found guilty by a U.S. District Court in California on charges of money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors said that while serving as NNPC’s upstream division general manager, Okoronkwo received the bribe from Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of China’s state-owned Sinopec, in October 2015. The payment — disguised as consultancy fees and wired to his Los Angeles law firm’s trust account — was meant to secure favourable drilling rights in Nigeria.
Evidence presented at trial showed that Addax executives falsified records, dismissed employees who questioned the transaction, and misled auditors to conceal the scheme. Okoronkwo later used nearly $1 million of the funds to make a down payment on a house in Valencia, California, without declaring the money in his 2015 tax return.
He also lied to federal investigators in 2022, claiming the funds were client payments rather than personal income, according to court filings.
Judge John Walter has set December 1 for sentencing. Okoronkwo faces up to 10 years in prison for each money laundering charge, another 10 years for obstruction of justice, and five years for ta
x evasion.
