A United States District Court has ordered the interim forfeiture of a California property linked to Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-American and former General Manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), after finding him guilty of financial crimes tied to a $2.1 million bribe.
Okoronkwo was convicted in September on multiple charges including transactional money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors told the court that while serving as NNPC’s upstream division general manager, Okoronkwo received $2.1 million from Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of China’s state-owned Sinopec, in October 2015. The payment, sent to his Los Angeles law firm’s trust account, was disguised as consultancy fees but was in fact a bribe for favourable oil drilling rights in Nigeria.
Court filings revealed that Addax Petroleum executives falsified company records to conceal the bribe, dismissed staff who raised concerns, and misled auditors during internal reviews.
Investigations also showed that Okoronkwo used nearly $1 million from the illicit payment as a down payment on a Valencia property in California, and failed to declare the income in his 2015 tax filings.
On October 3, Judge John Walter approved the U.S. government’s request for the forfeiture of the property located at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia, California 91381. The ruling established a direct link between the property and Okoronkwo’s money-laundering offences, citing a violation of 18 U.S.C. §1957.
The order authorised the U.S. Attorney General to seize the property and retain the proceeds from its sale. The government has since invited anyone with legal claims to the property to file within 60 days.
Okoronkwo’s sentencing has been scheduled for December 1, where he faces penalties for money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
