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).
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