US court orders forfeiture of property linked to ex-NNPC GM convicted over $2.1m bribe

A United States (US) district court has ordered the interim forfeiture of a property in California linked to Paulinus Okoronkwo, a Nigerian American, alleged to have been acquired with proceeds from bribery.

Okoronkwo is a former general manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), now NNPC Limited.

In September, the district court found Okoronkwo guilty of transactional money laundering, tax evasion, and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors said while serving as NNPC’s upstream division general manager, Okoronkwo abused his position by accepting a $2.1 million payment from Addax Petroleum, a Switzerland-based subsidiary of China’s state-owned Sinopec.

The money, wired in October 2015 to his law firm’s trust account in Los Angeles, was disguised as payment for consultancy services but was a bribe to secure favourable drilling rights in Nigeria.

The prosecutors had presented evidence that Addax executives falsified records to show the payment as legal fees, dismissed internal staff who raised concerns, and provided misleading information to auditors.

Okoronkwo, who practised immigration, family, and personal injury law in Koreatown, later used nearly $1 million of the bribe money as a down payment on a home in Valencia, California, while failing to declare the income on his 2015 tax return.

John Walter, the US district judge, had scheduled December 1 for the sentencing hearing.

THE FORFEITURE

According to the court documents, the judge, on October 3, granted the forfeiture application filed by the US government against Okoronkwo’s property.

The property is located at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia, California 91381.

“For the reasons set out below, any right, title, and interest of the defendant in the following described property (hereinafter, the “Forfeitable Property”) is hereby forfeited to the United States,” the court order reads.

“The Court finds that the government has established the requisite nexus between the Forfeitable Property and the offenses described in Counts 1 through 3 the First Superseding Indictment, which charged defendant with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1957 (transactional money laundering).

“The Forfeitable Property is more particularly described as: i. The net proceeds of the sale of the real property located at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia, California 91381, more particularly described as Tract Number 45433, Lot 12, with Assessor’s Parcel Number 2826-143-004 (Consolidated Asset Identification System Number 24-FBI-001775) (“Forfeitable Property”).

“Upon the entry of this Order, and pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2(b)(3) and 21 U.S.C. § 853, the United States Attorney General (or a designee) is authorized to seize the Forfeitable Property.”

The US government had published a notice asking any person who has interest in the forfeited property to show cause within 60 days. (See page 117 of the attached document).