…ANEEJ hails US agency for action
Sam Ikeotuonye & Mkpoikana Udoma
Lagos/Port Harcourt — A Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, former top official, Mr Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo, has been handed a three-count bribery and tax-related charges in a court in California, United States.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, found that Okoronkwo, a former general manager in NNPC’s upstream department, used his position to obtain at least $2.1 million in bribes from Addax Petroleum, under the ownership of Sinopec and based in Switzerland, to assist the company avoid a $2.4 billion liability to Nigeria as part of an oil-lifting contract that began in 2001.
A jury recently returned the three-count indictment against the 67 years old Mr Okoronkwo before the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
In a reaction in Port Harcourt, the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, hailed the FBI for the action against the NNPC former executive as it condemned the exploitation of Nigeria’s resources by individuals entrusted with positions of authority, which disproportionately affects the majority of citizens.
A dual citizen of Nigeria and the U.S., Mr Okoronkwo is reported to have practised immigration and personal injury law in California for nearly 30 years.
On May 25, 2015, just days before President Goodluck Jonathan was due to exit office on May 29, Mr Okoronkwo and other NNPC officials hurriedly entered into an agreement that would see Addax Petroleum return to developing Nigeria’s crude and gas reserves after a protracted pause due to a years long dispute over the 2001 deal between Nigeria and the Chinese firm.
Court documents said Addax Petroleum, based in Switzerland but owned by Sinopec, bribed Mr Okoronkwo with $5,263,157.89, including an immediate payment of $2,105,263.16, in October 2015 after the new administration of Muhammadu Buhari threatened the May 2015 contract.
Prosecutors did not immediately say whether or not Mr Okoronkwo received the balance from Addax, which might have been paid through other channels that may or may not pass through the U.S. financial system.
The $2.1 million payment was made via a wire transfer to Mr Okoronkwo’s law firm bank account in the U.S, court documents further stated.
It was purportedly billed for “Consultants for the negotiation and completion of a Settlement Agreement with NNPC” with respect to Addax’s dispute over drilling rights, prosecutors said in the indictment first alleged before a grand jury in June 2023.
Mr Okoronkwo helped Addax navigate the challenges from the Buhari administration that initially tried to impose a $2.37 billion liability on the Chinese firm, filings said.
“Addax had calculated that the failure to apply the side letter prospectively would cost Addax approximately $2.37 billion,” the indictment said. Mr Okoronkwo was using his U.S. law firm to purportedly represent Nigeria against NNPC, where he was also working as a general manager in charge of crude oil transactions.
Both Mr Okoronkwo and Addax made several efforts to conceal the bribe payment as legitimate, and a senior vice-president of the company was fired on July 13, 2016, for questioning the $2.1 million illicit transaction.
Authorities also filed obstruction and tax-evasion charges against Mr Okoronkwo for lying to investigators about the nature of the deal while also failing to pay taxes on it in his 2016 returns.
Mr Okoronkwo knew the $2,105,263 payment represented a bribe from Addax in exchange for his influencing the NNPC, that the payment did not represent client funds but rather illicit income and the $45,000 in gross income represented in his individual tax return did not include the multimillion-dollar bribe payment he had received, the filings said.
Mr Okoronkwo will be arraigned in the coming weeks and faces up to 10 years in prison upon conviction. A separate forfeiture proceeding was underway to recover Mr Okoronkwo’s ill-gotten yields, including a home he bought in cash for $983,200 in 2017 from the proceeds.
Meanwhile, here in Nigeria, the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, has lauded the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for levying three-count bribery and tax-related charges against Mr Okoronkwo.
“In light of the prevailing economic challenges facing Nigeria, exacerbated by corruption at the highest echelons of government, ANEEJ calls upon President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to redouble its efforts in the fight against corruption,” he stated.
