Ex-NNPCL Official Convicted in US Over $2.1m Addax Petroleum Bribery, Faces 25-Year Jail Term
A former senior official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, is facing a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in a United States federal prison after his conviction in a $2.1 million bribery case linked to oil transactions involving Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of Sinopec.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, the 58-year-old lawyer was found guilty of three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.
Sentencing has been scheduled for December 1, 2025.
Court filings revealed that in October 2015, Okoronkwo’s law firm account received $2,105,263 from Addax Petroleum.
The payment was purportedly for consultancy services in negotiating a settlement agreement between Addax and the NNPC over the company’s drilling rights in Nigeria.
U.S. prosecutors, however, described the consultancy arrangement as a sham designed to disguise a bribe. They noted that the engagement letter between Addax and Okoronkwo’s firm contained a fictitious Lagos address, which they said was part of the cover-up.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) maintained that the funds were paid in exchange for Okoronkwo’s influence in securing favourable oil agreements for Addax in Nigeria.
Beyond the bribery allegations, prosecutors accused him of failing to declare the $2.1 million payment in his 2015 federal income tax return, thereby committing tax evasion.
He was further convicted of obstruction of justice for allegedly attempting to mislead investigators and conceal the true source of the funds. The DoJ characterised his conduct as a calculated financial crime that breached both Nigerian and U.S. anti-corruption laws.
Okoronkwo’s legal troubles began in January 2024, when a U.S. federal grand jury indicted him on five counts, including money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
In Nigeria, the former NNPCL executive had already come under public scrutiny over questionable oil deals. Former presidential aide Bashir Ahmad disclosed in May 2024 that Okoronkwo, then a general manager in NNPC’s upstream department, was part of a team that, on May 25, 2015, just days before former President Goodluck Jonathan left office—finalised a controversial agreement with Addax Petroleum, allegedly costing Nigeria $2.4 billion.
His conviction in the U.S. has renewed focus on high-profile corruption cases tied to Nigeria’s oil sector, particularly those concluded in the twilight of Jonathan’s administration. If the court imposes the maximum sentence, Okoronkwo could spend the next quarter-century in an American prison.
