A UNITED States district court has sentenced Paulinus Okoronkwo, a former senior executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, to 87 months in federal prison over a 2.1 million dollar bribery scheme linked to a Chinese oil company.
News Pont Nigeria reports that Okoronkwo, who previously served as a general manager in the upstream division of the now restructured Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, was convicted on multiple counts including transactional money laundering, tax evasion and obstruction of justice.
The sentence was handed down by John Walter, who also ordered the former oil executive to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
In addition, the court directed the forfeiture of $1,039,997, representing proceeds from the sale of a residential property tied to the illicit funds.
According to United States prosecutors, the payment originated from Addax Petroleum, a Switzerland based subsidiary of Sinopec, a Chinese state owned petroleum conglomerate.
Prosecutors told the court that the $2.1 million transfer, wired in October 2015 to Okoronkwo’s law firm trust account in Los Angeles, was falsely presented as consultancy fees.
