Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, Oil Bribe Scheme, California 2024

LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles-area lawyer is facing a potential decade behind bars after a jury found him guilty today of five federal charges connected to a brazen $2.1 million bribe payment. Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, 58, a.k.a. “Pollie,” of Valencia, allegedly accepted the illicit funds while serving as an officer of Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, influencing negotiations for lucrative drilling rights awarded to a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned oil giant Sinopec.

The jury convicted Okoronkwo of three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice. Evidence presented during the four-day trial painted a picture of a calculated scheme where Okoronkwo, a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria, exploited his position as general manager of the upstream division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC). As a public official, he had a fiduciary duty to Nigeria, a duty prosecutors argued he flagrantly violated.

In October 2015, Addax Petroleum, the Sinopec subsidiary, wired $2,105,263 to an Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA) tied to Okoronkwo’s Koreatown law office. The payment was falsely presented as compensation for consulting work related to a settlement agreement regarding Addax’s drilling rights. However, prosecutors demonstrated that Addax stood to lose billions if those rights weren’t secured and that the payment was, in reality, a direct bribe to influence Okoronkwo. The engagement letter itself was a sham, listing a fake Lagos address to further conceal the illicit transaction.

Addax went to extreme lengths to cover its tracks, lying to auditors and allegedly firing executives who questioned the payment’s legitimacy. Okoronkwo, for his part, funneled the bribe money through his law firm’s IOLTA account, attempting to disguise it as legitimate client funds. In November 2017, he used $983,200 of the tainted money as a down payment on a house in Valencia. He then compounded his crimes by failing to report the $2.1 million bribe on his 2015 federal income tax return.

The deception didn’t stop there. In June 2022, Okoronkwo allegedly obstructed justice by lying to federal investigators, claiming he hadn’t used any of the $2.1 million to purchase the house and insisting the funds were legitimate client money. United States District Judge John F. Walter has scheduled a sentencing hearing for December 1. Okoronkwo faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count, 10 years for obstruction of justice, and 5 years for tax evasion. He remains free on $50,000 bond while awaiting sentencing.

The investigation was a joint effort by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation, with assistance from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander B. Schwab, Nisha Chandran, and Alexander Su are prosecuting the case, vowing to hold those who exploit public office for personal gain accountable. This case underscores the reach of federal investigators and their commitment to unraveling complex international corruption schemes.

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