LOS ANGELES (KESQ) – A Los Angeles-area lawyer was sentenced today to seven years, three months in federal prison for receiving a $2.1 million bribe while serving as an officer of Nigeria’s state-owned oil company in connection with negotiating favorable drilling rights for a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned oil company.
Paulinus Okoronkwo, 58, also known as “Pollie,” was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter, who ordered him to pay $923,824 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and ordered that Okoronkwo forfeit over $1 million, the net proceeds of the sale of a Valencia home involved in the laundering of the bribe money.
At the conclusion of a four-day trial, a jury in downtown Los Angeles in August 2025 found Okoronkwo guilty of three counts of transactional money laundering, one count of tax evasion, and one count of obstruction of justice…