A U.S. district court has sentenced former NNPC general manager Paulinus Okoronkwo to 87 months in prison for receiving a $2.1 million bribe from Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of Sinopec.
A United States district court has sentenced Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-American and former general manager at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, now NNPC Limited, to 87 months in prison for receiving a $2.1 million bribe. In a statement issued on Monday, U.S. authorities said District Judge John Walter also ordered Okoronkwo to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The court further ordered the forfeiture of $1,039,997, representing the net proceeds from the sale of a residential property owned by the former executive. According to U.S. prosecutors, Okoronkwo abused his position as general manager in NNPC’s upstream division by accepting the payment from Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of Sinopec, in October 2015. The funds were allegedly wired to his law firm’s trust account in Los Angeles and disguised as consultancy fees.
Prosecutors told the court that the payment was in fact a bribe intended to secure favourable drilling rights in Nigeria. Evidence presented showed that Addax executives falsified internal records to classify the payment as legal fees, dismissed employees who raised compliance concerns, and provided misleading information to auditors.
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