By Omoniyi David
A United States court has convicted Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian lawyer based in Los Angeles, for receiving a $2.1 million bribe from a Chinese oil company to influence crude oil drilling rights in Nigeria.
Okoronkwo, 58, popularly known as “Pollie,” was found guilty on August 29 after a four-day trial in California.
He was convicted on three counts of money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors said Okoronkwo collected the bribe in 2015 while serving as General Manager of the upstream division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), now NNPC Ltd.
The money, wired by Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of China’s state-owned Sinopec was disguised as consultancy fees and paid into a trust account under Okoronkwo’s Los Angeles law firm. The court ruled the contract was a sham designed to conceal the bribe.
Investigators revealed that Addax paid the money to secure more favourable financial terms for its multi-billion-dollar drilling operations in Nigeria.
The company allegedly dismissed executives who raised concerns and falsified audit reports to mask the transaction.
Evidence presented in court also showed that in November 2017, Okoronkwo withdrew $983,200 from the illicit funds, further implicating him in the cover-up.
