21.10.2025
A former general manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo has forfeited a $2.5 million mansion in Los Angeles, California, to the U.S. government.
Iheanacho Okoronkwo who is a dual citizen of Nigeria and USA had earlier been convicted of money laundering, tax evasion and obstruction of justice.
A preliminary forfeiture order issued on October 3, 2025, by Judge John Walter of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, directed that Okoronkwo’s luxury property at 25340 Twin Oaks Place, Valencia be seized and transferred to the government.
According to court documents obtained by Peoples Gazette, the property—identified as Tract No. 45433, Lot 12 (Assessor’s Parcel No. 2826-143-004)—was linked to proceeds from illegal financial transactions in violation of U.S. money-laundering laws.
Okoronkwo, 58, also a practicing lawyer in Los Angeles was convicted in August 2025 after a four-day trial where prosecutors presented evidence that the former oil executive received $2,105,263 in October 2015 from Addax Petroleum, a Swiss subsidiary of Chinese oil giant Sinopec.
Prosecutors told the court that the arrangement was a sham designed to disguise the payment, which was “a bribe” to secure favourable financial terms for Addax’s drilling operations in Nigeria.
Further revelations showed that in November 2017, Okoronkwo allegedly used $983,200 of the illicit funds as a down payment for a house in Valencia, California.
He also “failed” to declare the bribe money in his 2015 federal tax returns.
When quizzed by federal agents in 2022, the former oil boss reportedly obstructed justice by insisting the funds belonged to a client and not to him.
Okoronkwo faces up to 25 years in prison, with a statutory maximum of 10 years each for the unlawful monetary transactions and obstruction of justice, and 5 years for tax evasion.
Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo