A U.S. District Court in California has set December 1, 2025, as the date for the sentencing of Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, a 58-year-old former General Manager at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), who was convicted of taking a $2.1 million bribe from a Swiss oil firm.

Okoronkwo was indicted in January 2024 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California on a charge that included three counts of conducting unlawful monetary transactions, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstructing justice. Prosecutors said he received $2,105,263 in October 2015 from Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of Sinopec, routed through his Los Angeles law firm.

The money, disguised as consultancy fees for Addax’s drilling rights in Nigeria, was described by the Department of Justice as a bribe designed to secure favorable terms from the NNPC. Investigations revealed that Addax misrepresented the transaction, misled auditors, and forced out executives who questioned the deal.

Okoronkwo, in turn, used nearly $1 million of the money as a down payment for a house in Valencia, California, in 2017, while failing to report the income on his 2015 federal tax return. In 2022, he misled federal investigators by insisting the money belonged to a client. After a four-day trial, a jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts.

Judge John F. Walter scheduled sentencing for December 1, where Okoronkwo faces up to 25 years in prison—10 years each for the unlawful transactions, 10 years for obstruction of justice, and five years for tax evasion.

Okoronkwo, once a practising lawyer in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, is currently free on a $50,000 bond while awaiting sentencing. The NNPCL dismissed him in 2024 after his indictment, according to former presidential aide, Bashir Ahmad.