Nigerian “Foreign Official” Convicted Of Various Criminal Offenses In Connection With Bribery Scheme
This previous post highlighted a DOJ criminal enforcement action against Paulinus Iheanacho Okoronkwo (also known as Pollie – a dual citizen of the U.S. and Nigeria who resides in California).
Pollie was an attorney admitted to the State Bar of California and the “sole proprietor of the Law Office of Pollie Okoronkwo where he practiced immigration law and personal injury matters, such as slip-and-fall and motor vehicle injury cases.”)
The indictment alleged that Okoronkwo was also a “foreign official serving as the general manager of the NNPC’s [Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation] Upstream Division” and further alleged the following relevant background.
The Many FCPA Enforcement Actions Involving PEMEX
Can doing business with a specific customer – in and of itself – be a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act “red flag”?
That seems a bit harsh, particularly when the company has approximately 125,000 employees.
Then again, as set forth in this post, it is hard to ignore that a dozen corporate FCPA enforcement actions have involved – in whole or in part – bribery schemes involving employees of Mexico’s Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) and it various subsidiaries and affiliates.
Insight On The Pintado Matter
This post is from Andrew Feldman (Feldman Firm PLLC).
Since President Trump issued the Executive Orders “pausing” the enforcement of the FCPA, lots of large law firms decried the potential end of the FCPA and worried that there would be a steep decline in FCPA investigations and prosecutions. Attorney General Pam Bondi had also emphasized that the FCPA should be used to prosecute narcotraffickers, not foreign nationals engaged in extraterritorial conduct which poses no threat to American interests.
In mid-March of this year and in the heart of this FCPA pause panic, the government travelled to Costa Rica to extradite the Firm’s client, Cristian Patricio Pintado Garcia. Mr. Pintado is an Ecuadorian national with no status in the United States who had been indicted in 2022 for violations of the FCPA and money laundering. Mr Pintado had been languishing in a Costa Rican prison since August of last year when he was arrested shortly after traveling from Ecuador.
The “Foreign Officials” Of 2024
A “foreign official.”
Without one, there can be no FCPA anti-bribery violation (civil or criminal). Who were the alleged “foreign officials” of 2024?
This post highlights the alleged “foreign officials” from 2024 corporate DOJ and SEC FCPA enforcement actions.
As is apparent from the descriptions below, in certain instances the enforcement agencies describe the “foreign official” with reasonable specificity. In other instances there is less specificity as to the alleged “foreign officials.”
Judicial Decision Touches Upon On A Variety Of FCPA Issues
As highlighted in this prior post, in February 2024 Javier Aguilar was convicted by a federal jury “for his role in a scheme to bribe Ecuadorean and Mexican government officials and to launder money to secure contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars for his then-employer, Vitol Inc. (Vitol), the U.S. affiliate of the largest independent energy trading firm in the world.” Aguilar was convicted of one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), one count of violating the FCPA, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Thereafter, Aguilar filed a motion for judgment of acquittal, or in the alternative, for a new trial. Recently, Judge Eric Vitaliano (E.D.N.Y.) denied the motion and in doing so touched upon the FCPA’s “foreign official,” element, knowledge, and the FCPA’s local law affirmative defense.