Former NNPCL executive Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo was convicted by a U.S. federal court of receiving bribes totalling $2.1 million……CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
The 58-year-old Nigerian national, who is a naturalised U.S. citizen and practices law in Los Angeles, was found guilty of several offences, including obstruction of justice, three charges of money laundering, and one count of tax evasion. According to the case, which focusses on oil development in Nigeria, Addax Petroleum, a division of Sinopec of China, sent Okoronkwo $2.1 million in October 2015. Prosecutors demonstrated that the money was transferred into his Los Angeles legal practice as consulting fees, but in reality, it was bribery. According to investigations, Addax executives fired staff members who raised concerns about the transactions, fabricated documents, and deceived auditors.
According to reports, Okoronkwo used around $983,000 of the illegal monies as a down payment for a Valencia, California, home in November 2017. The probe was postponed because he failed to include this as income on his 2015 tax return and later denied ownership of the funds, stating they belonged to a business associate. The case was presided over by Judge John F. Walter, who set the sentence date for December 1, 2025. Okoronkwo faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, which includes five years for tax evasion, ten years for money laundering, and ten years for obstruction of justice. The reliability of the Nigerian oil industry has come under scrutiny due to this well-publicized corruption scandal involving multinational corporations…….CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
