Paulinus Okoronkwo, a former topshot of the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Company (NNPC) has forfeiture considered one of his properties in California after being jailed for accepting a $2.1 million bribe from Addax Petroleum.
Okoronkwo, a Nigerian-American who later practised regulation in Los Angeles, was in September discovered responsible of transactional cash laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.
In response to US prosecutors, whereas serving as Basic Supervisor in NNPC’s upstream division, Paulinus Okoronkwo abused his workplace by accepting a $2.1 million fee from Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of China’s state-owned Sinopec Group.
The fee, wired in October 2015 to his regulation agency’s belief account in Los Angeles, was disguised as consultancy charges however was actually a bribe meant to safe beneficial drilling rights in Nigeria.
Prosecutors informed the courtroom that Addax executives falsified data to misrepresent the transaction as authorized charges, dismissed inner whistleblowers, and misled auditors throughout inner critiques.
Investigations revealed that Okoronkwo used almost $1 million from the illicit funds as a down fee for a luxurious house in Valencia, California, whereas concealing the revenue from US tax authorities.
District Choose John Walter is scheduled to condemn Okoronkwo on December 1, 2025.
Court docket paperwork present that on October 3, Choose Walter granted the US authorities’s request to grab Okoronkwo’s property positioned at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia, California 91381.
“The Court docket finds that the federal government has established the requisite nexus between the forfeitable property and the offences described in Counts 1 by means of 3 of the First Superseding Indictment,” the order learn.
The forfeiture covers the web proceeds of the sale of the property, recognized as Tract Quantity 45433, Lot 12, with Assessor’s Parcel Quantity 2826-143-004.
Below Federal Rule of Legal Process 32.2(b)(3) and 21 U.S.C. § 853, the US Lawyer Basic (or a designee) is authorised to grab the asset instantly.
The US authorities additionally revealed a 60-day public discover inviting any third get together with a professional declare to the property to return ahead.