On a frigid morning in February 2022, Niels Troost was at dwelling in Geneva when information broke that 190,000 Russian troops had marched into Ukraine. As he scrolled by way of headlines and messages on his cellphone, he might hardly consider he was studying a few land invasion going down in Europe. The 52-year-old had been buying and selling Russian oil for nearly 30 years, creating a profitable area of interest by advertising a particular kind of crude from the nation’s far east. He considered all of the Russian and Ukrainian enterprise companions he’d remodeled the course of his profession.
Later, at his workplaces overlooking the lake, Troost and his small group started to parse the enterprise implications. Troost is tall, with broad shoulders and an extended face that involves an abrupt cease at a sq. chin with a deep dimple within the centre. He speaks English with solely a touch of an accent from his native Netherlands. Troost preferred to say he was now not motivated by revenue. The emblem of his firm, Paramount Vitality and Commodities SA, confirmed three mountain peaks, one for every of his youngsters. With their encouragement, he had begun to take a position revenues from Russian offers into power and agricultural initiatives in Africa.
For now, Paramount’s enterprise was fully depending on a nation that had simply declared struggle on the western world. Every little thing he had constructed was in danger. For the following two months Troost labored day and night time, usually alone, making an attempt to know the quickly rising restrictions on doing enterprise with Russia. Not like its a lot bigger rivals, which employed quite a few regulatory specialists, Paramount’s employees numbered solely 17. It was a extremely worthwhile however easy enterprise, wholly depending on Troost’s private relationships.
Fearing navy escalation after the invasion, the EU and US had coalesced round a plan to hit again with focused financial sanctions that will harm Vladimir Putin and his acolytes’ funds. However retaliating with guidelines will not be as easy as hitting a launch button. A contemporary sanctions programme is akin to software program that wants shut monitoring and frequent patching. Since 2022, for example, the EU has up to date its Russian sanctions not less than 14 occasions, trying to shut loopholes and squash unintended bugs. The longer they final, the extra complicated the sanctions turn into.
By the start of April that yr, the EU’s sanctions coated 1,091 people and 80 corporations. There have been no restrictions on exporting oil from Russia, however Paramount’s banks in Switzerland had been already telling the corporate to take its enterprise elsewhere. At dwelling, Troost’s youngsters, who had been of their late teenagers and early twenties, had been following the information too and asking whether or not he shouldn’t shut the corporate down altogether.
Bigger merchants reminiscent of Trafigura, additionally primarily based in Geneva, introduced they might cease buying and selling Russian crude. Troost thought of strolling away, however not one of the privately owned Russian oil producers he handled had been sanctioned. And he had contracts with Chinese language prospects he was obliged to fulfil so long as they didn’t break worldwide guidelines.
The struggle was not Troost’s solely drawback. He had additionally fallen out with a former fixer, who had claimed to be working as a “particular agent” for the CIA and was now threatening to create issues for Paramount after their enterprise relationship soured. Determined for assist, Troost turned to a well-connected buddy, who prompt he converse to somebody who actually was concerned with the CIA.
Gaurav Kumar Srivastava, or “G” as he preferred to be known as, was an American businessman and philanthropist in his early thirties. He appeared to have arrange a generously endowed household basis to assist deal with international starvation and power shortage. Troost’s buddy informed him what he wouldn’t discover by looking G’s title on-line, that his firm, Unity Sources Group, carried out missions for US intelligence. G had informed him about how he’d offered weapons to Libya, constructed an Indonesian fishing fleet to spy on China and saved the lifetime of a former governor in Afghanistan. Troost’s buddy assured him he’d spoken to the Afghan man on the cellphone himself. He’d described G as his “saviour”.
In early Might, Troost was launched to G over the cellphone. G listened to his issues, then reduce to the chase. He mentioned he might present an “umbrella” of US authorities safety, which might enable Paramount to proceed its dealings in Russia with out concern. Finally, G might additionally safe a licence from the US Treasury division to make that safety official.
If the guarantees appear grandiose looking back, G appeared to know what he was speaking about within the second. The US wanted corporations like Paramount, he defined, to extend its management over key commodity flows, reminiscent of oil exports from Russia and uncommon metals, at the moment dominated by China. Penalising Russia for the struggle was essential, however aggressive sanctions risked pushing commodity buying and selling additional into the shadows and finally undermining the primacy of the greenback. G appeared particularly fluent in issues of international coverage, often name-dropping high-level US officers.
For the primary time for the reason that invasion, Troost perceived a glimmer of hope. Over the next months, he allowed himself to be pulled additional and additional right into a relationship with G that will finally push Troost to the sting of purpose. Because the struggle floor on and western powers hardened towards Russia and its enterprise companions, Troost would discover himself caught in a tightening vice, pressed between widespread sense and the concern of shedding Paramount, his life’s work. Finally, Troost and one in all his administrators would turn into the one Europeans to be sanctioned for dealing Russian oil, his accounts frozen, his enterprise closed and his fame in tatters.
Earlier than they agreed to fulfill, G proved the extent of his competence and connections. First, he requested for an in depth account of what had occurred with the previous fixer, with whom Troost had fallen out. Every week or so later, G known as to tell him the person had filed a report back to the FBI, accusing Troost of getting ties to the Kremlin and Russian cash laundering. Fortunately, G defined, he had intervened and satisfied authorities Troost was harmless. However there have been some hoops to leap by way of.
There was a cellphone name with a former Nato commander and US presidential candidate, Basic Wesley Clark, throughout which they mentioned commodity buying and selling alternatives. Then Troost needed to be screened by a former Goldman Sachs dealer, who G mentioned was working with the FBI. Troost despatched a personal aircraft to gather the person from Spain, and the 2 met in a room at a personal Swiss airport. He peppered Troost with questions concerning the extent of his connections in Russia and stored repeating that he wanted to know all the pieces concerning the enterprise. G assured him it was all par for the course.
Quickly, there was excellent news. G had spoken with FBI director Christopher Wray, and Troost had handed. Troost had had his doubts however, by the point they determined to fulfill in individual, G had seemingly resolved the issue together with his former fixer and made introductions that prompt he had relationships on the highest ranges of the US authorities.
In July 2022, Troost flew to Indonesia, the place G informed him he was spending the summer time making ready for the upcoming G20 assembly. They had been to remain at Como Shambhala, an opulent wellness resort nestled within the jungle of central Bali, the place monkeys skitter over the thatched roofs, basking within the solar between thunderous rainstorms. Fundamental lodging begin at about $950 an evening. G had rented three villas with darkish, hardwood flooring and lavish furnishings.
On July 4, Troost celebrated US Independence Day with G and his household. G had thick eyebrows and a gregarious grin, outlined by a bushy black beard. If he gave the impression to be packing on a bit additional weight, he mentioned, that was attributable to a abdomen wound he had suffered in Afghanistan. He wore a navy polo shirt with an Air Power One emblem and, as he had on the cellphone, appeared snug opining on issues of worldwide politics. As the 2 males talked into the night time, Troost felt a weight lifting. In G, he had not solely discovered a brand new enterprise accomplice, however a kindred spirit. “We spoke about our backgrounds and what has occurred in our lives,” Troost wrote later in an electronic mail to colleagues. “We got here to the conclusion that we’ve the identical ambition and share the identical values and targets.”
On a second journey to Indonesia later that month, Troost was accompanied by his spouse, Jacqueline. She additionally discovered G charming and charismatic. At one level, G and Troost took a 24-hour jaunt to Jakarta, the place they met with Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia’s defence minister on the time. (He’s now president.) G and Troost travelled to his residence, the place the minister warmly greeted his buddy “Mr G” they usually all ate hamburgers. Prabowo’s brother later informed Troost that G had helped take away Prabowo’s title from a US no-entry listing, for which the household was grateful.
Troost was impressed. Whereas nonetheless in Indonesia, he emailed Paramount’s non-executive director, a lawyer and his tax adviser with information of a plan that had been hashed out within the jungle. “I’ve agreed to group up with a brand new accomplice who will be part of as an equal shareholder in Paramount,” he wrote. “We’ll develop the exercise of the corporate worldwide and the brand new shareholder’s enter will consist of creating his worldwide community out there.” Troost had agreed to promote G half the corporate for SFr50,000 ($57,000). In flip, G’s involvement would allow Paramount to commerce Russian oil and different commodities with the help of the US authorities.
As Paramount’s sole shareholder, Troost had by no means taken a dividend, preferring to make use of earnings to fund the corporate’s African initiatives. That meant it had amassed a number of hundred million {dollars} of retained earnings as of July 2022, which Troost’s advisers wanted time to exclude from the transaction making G a accomplice. “That is extraordinarily essential and pressing and can’t wait or be postponed,” Troost wrote in all caps to his head of accounts 4 days later. “The survival and way forward for the corporate relies on it.”
For causes of “operational safety”, G mentioned he couldn’t personal the Paramount stake in his title, in keeping with Troost. As an alternative, an affiliate of G’s would maintain it on his behalf as a trustee, paperwork present. It was Nicolas Bravard, the previous Goldman dealer who had grilled Troost within the non-public Swiss airport. G requested that Troost not disclose his relationship with the CIA to Paramount workers, Troost mentioned. He complied, referring to Bravard as his “new accomplice” in his first emails to employees. The secrecy made sense, Troost thought, though he did inform Jacqueline.
The extra G and Troost travelled collectively, the extra doorways opened. That first summer time, he returned to Jakarta two extra occasions. On the ultimate journey, they flew by helicopter by way of the sprawling metropolis’s tower blocks to go to Indra Bakrie, scion of a robust Indonesian enterprise dynasty, on his non-public island. Then G invited Troost to an awards dinner in New York, celebrating Indonesia’s president and Google chief govt Sundar Pichai, amongst others. Troost disliked formal events, however he employed a dinner swimsuit and Jacqueline joined. The couple took smiling selfies with G and his spouse on the road exterior the venue.
Throughout these whirlwind weeks of worldwide journey, Troost and G had been in near-constant contact. G despatched a number of messages a day, usually utilizing the encrypted app Sign. The cellphone calls and messages would begin within the afternoon, Swiss time, as soon as G had woken up in Los Angeles, and proceed late into the night time. As they talked, they started creating the plan that will take Paramount to the following degree.
In early September 2022, G7 leaders confirmed their intention to impose one other measure designed to punish the Kremlin with out inflicting a significant shock to the delicate international economic system. Underneath the brand new proposal, the EU would embargo imports of Russian oil, however western corporations might proceed to help the export of Russian oil to different components of the world, if it was offered at a reduction to market costs.
Troost was sceptical, as had been different veteran merchants. The fixed-price caps underneath dialogue didn’t account for variations in worth between completely different Russian crude blends, or in how these costs had been set when cargoes had been traded. Not solely wouldn’t it be tough to implement, it could most likely push the Russian oil commerce “underground”, Troost wrote in a sequence of firm memos he shared with G.
Troost and G developed another plan, a programme that will contain the US Treasury licensing a small variety of skilled merchants, reminiscent of Paramount, to proceed to commerce oil from Russian producers. Funds could be routed by way of designated banks for monitoring. This choose group would nonetheless purchase at a reduction to market costs, however these reductions would range extra extensively, relying on the particular product. Such a programme would maintain “dangerous actors” out of the enterprise and stand a larger probability of Russian co-operation, Troost reasoned.
It could even be good for Paramount. One drawback dealing with the corporate was that the oil it specialised in advertising, often known as ESPO mix, traded at a premium to different Russian crudes. Troost had already moved the corporate’s ESPO offers from Paramount to a subsidiary known as Paramount Vitality & Commodities DMCC within the United Arab Emirates, the place native banks had been nonetheless amenable. However persevering with the enterprise, even from the UAE, was prone to be difficult as soon as the G7’s new guidelines had been in place. G’s promised US help meant the 2 males wouldn’t solely have the ability to defend Paramount’s current enterprise, however broaden it.
In early November 2022, G and Troost had been again in Bali, this time with a possibility to debate the concept of a licensing programme publicly. The event was a meals safety discussion board funded with the assistance of a $1mn donation from the Gaurav and Sharon Srivastava Household Basis. G was in his aspect, virtually presidential, as he steered two days of dialogue on easy methods to carry down power costs and feed the world. All through, he wore a small US flag pinned to his lapel. “Like lots of you within the viewers, I’ve tasted the horrors of struggle,” he mentioned in a keynote. “We should devise various plans to maintain the power flowing,” he continued. “We’d like a programme that may be managed and maintained by way of clear and clear reporting mechanisms with banking help from reliable establishments.”
Troost understood he was speaking concerning the licensing programme that they had devised collectively, though G by no means explicitly mentioned as a lot. Earlier than singer John Legend got here to the stage to shut out the discussion board, G informed the group: “Keep in mind, there may be nothing extra human than morality.”
In the summertime of 2022, across the time he was first attending to know G, Troost attended a commencement celebration in Geneva and located himself speaking to a Swiss girl named Susanne. A former customs officer, she had been raised to be direct, and Troost preferred her straight-talking type. “Wherever you’re working now, I’ll pay you twice as a lot,” he mentioned. The supply was typical of the person who had constructed Paramount on intuition and handshakes.
Susanne, who requested that the FT not use her final title, had simply been turned down for a elevate on the enterprise capital agency the place she’d labored for a few years. She accepted Troost’s proposal and began that November, as he was making ready to move to the Bali discussion board.
As his govt assistant, she handled all the pieces from journey to the continued discussions with G and Bravard over the construction of the partnership. The connection between Troost and Bravard had been fractious from the beginning. “I’m really shocked Nicolas mentioned this!” Troost had written to G earlier in the summertime, after Bravard appeared to accuse Troost of hiding a part of Paramount’s earnings.
In distinction, Troost was turning into ever-closer to G. “We should always drive in an previous pick-up throughout the States and simply hearken to music,” he messaged G in October.
“Would love that,” G replied.
Troost’s dependence on G startled Susanne. His worldwide community of connections gave the impression to be actual, as did his relationship with the distinguished American regulation agency, BakerHostetler, which represented him and later signed Paramount as a consumer. However she couldn’t shake the sensation one thing was off. “I discovered this G individual simply weird,” Susanne informed me. “I stored googling him on daily basis as a result of we knew nothing about him.”
Different Paramount employees had been additionally uneasy, together with François Mauron, the corporate director accountable for Paramount DMCC in Dubai. As the beginning of the G7’s worth cap in December 2022 approached, Mauron was getting anxious about persevering with the Russian enterprise with out G’s promised licence from the US Treasury’s Workplace of International Belongings Management (Ofac). Paramount’s attorneys had suggested that Emirati subsidiaries of European corporations weren’t required to adjust to the G7’s guidelines if they didn’t use western companies. However as a Swiss nationwide, Mauron felt he was in a gray zone that would expose him.
Across the identical time, Mauron permitted a $51mn mortgage, organized by G, from Paramount DMCC to an Indonesian firm, Arsari Group, owned by Prabowo’s brother. The cash was for use to fund a biofuels mission, Mauron was informed, however he was uncomfortable with the stress G had positioned on him to shut.
In the meantime, the necessities of the partnership with G began to alter. As a way to get the Ofac licence, it was now not adequate for G to personal half the corporate, through Bravard. As an alternative Paramount wanted to be redomiciled within the US in a course of that G and attorneys at BakerHostetler known as an “inversion”. Troost and G, by way of their respective funding autos, would every personal 50 per cent of a US holding firm, which might in flip personal Paramount SA and Paramount DMCC, in keeping with a diagram of 1 proposed construction seen by the FT.
G turned exasperated, as talks over easy methods to construction the partnership dragged on. Troost’s attorneys had suggested that Swiss tax authorities had been unlikely to simply accept that SFr50,000 represented truthful worth for 50 per cent of an organization making tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in revenue a yr. They prompt developing with a brand new construction. “If we [do] this, I’d have lied and fronted to a number of companies,” G complained to Troost in a message in February 2023. “And it’s a snowball from there on. This isn’t an remoted tax problem . . . I’m really pissed off.”
Troost had his personal frustrations, not least spiralling authorized prices. “We’re utilizing BakerHostetler as workers. We can not proceed with that,” he wrote to G the identical month. “We’ll find yourself working simply to pay their payments.” G was racking up different costs for which Paramount was on the hook. In January, he had acquired $5.2mn for what he described in an electronic mail to Troost as “Paramount-related bills”. However, in keeping with Troost, G had then failed to offer the required receipts and invoices. (BakerHostetler didn’t reply to a number of requests for feedback.)
In March that yr, I first contacted Troost about Paramount DMCC’s continued buying and selling of ESPO crude, which was pricing above the $60-per-barrel cap set by G7 international locations. Based on messages seen by the FT, one in all G’s advisers prompt that Troost reply by telling me that Paramount was “working with the information and consent of the US authorities”. He rapidly reversed himself. “Niels: I wrote too quickly. Gaurav doesn’t need point out of the US authorities to the FT or different media.”
The subsequent article made the rounds within the intently knit oil-trading group and put Troost within the highlight. However G had some excellent news: the Ofac course of gave the impression to be shifting alongside. Troost wanted to fly to LA, signal some paperwork within the native “CIA workplace” and take a lie-detector take a look at, after which they might each fly to Washington to fulfill US authorities officers. Then they might lastly gather the licence.
Troost landed at LAX later that month. However, in keeping with his account, G knowledgeable him there had been issues. The promised conferences by no means occurred.
Again in Geneva, Susanne’s persistent googling paid off. She discovered an actual property article itemizing G as the brand new proprietor of a $24.5mn California mansion and have become satisfied he will need to have used Paramount’s cash to purchase it. With out telling Troost, she known as a personal investigator primarily based in Geneva, named Jonas Rey. Strain was constructing on Troost to finish the inversion, so Rey didn’t have a lot time. It didn’t take him lengthy to unearth considerations.
Troost was having breakfast on the Federal Palace resort in Lagos, Nigeria, when Susanne known as. “Are you sitting down?” she requested, earlier than laying out what Rey had discovered.
“Susanne, shut the f*ck up!” Troost shouted down the cellphone.
“Look Niels, I do know that is tough for you. I’m actually making an attempt to save lots of the corporate,” she informed him. “G is a conman.”
Troost refused to consider her. He bashed out an extended electronic mail to G and Bravard, imploring them to make good on their unique promise. “I entered right into a take care of G due to what he informed me he can do for us,” he wrote. “I didn’t confirm something or query his background, means or the rest . . . there may be complete belief. We’re on this collectively now and we’re joined on the hip.”
Two days later, nonetheless seething that Susanne had gone behind his again, Troost got here dwelling to a brand new drawback. The Swiss sanctions company, Seco, had written to Paramount with detailed questions concerning the group’s actions in Russia. “I’m very confused,” Troost wrote to G and his lawyer at BakerHostetler. “I used to be continually knowledgeable that G was talking on to the highest individual at Seco . . . and coping with this and that we bought the all clear . . . Please name me urgently.”
The subsequent morning, Susanne, the investigator Rey, Paramount’s non-executive director and a lawyer gathered across the boardroom desk within the firm’s Geneva workplace to fulfill with Troost. His spouse Jacqueline was there for help. Rey didn’t mince phrases: G was a “skilled fraudster”. His preliminary investigation had discovered no proof of a hyperlink between G and any US authorities company. The truth is, G was not even an American citizen, as he had usually mentioned in public. He was an Indian nationwide, born in 1990, with a US inexperienced card.
Between not less than 2014 and 2019, G had been concerned in a biotech firm, which had been sued on not less than 4 events, Rey continued. A safety firm known as Unity Sources Group had existed for the reason that early 2000s, however hyperlinks between it and G had been unclear, Rey added. (Unity’s founder later informed me Srivastava had briefly expressed curiosity in investing within the enterprise round 2019 however had by no means executed any work “with or for” the corporate.)
An hour-long assembly turned a day-long dialogue. All of it regarding one thing Troost didn’t wish to be true.
When Troost confronted G with Rey’s findings, he appeared unshaken. The data had been planted within the public file by the CIA, he informed Troost, to make him seem extra like an everyday, unconnected businessman. All that mattered, G assured him, was urgent forward with the inversion. “I’ve to know the place we [are] going,” G messaged Troost on Might 3 2023. “Motion not phrases. I don’t care concerning the employees drama. It’s an excessive amount of. Am I going to do that with you, Niels or not?”
At first, Troost performed alongside, placing on a conflicted entrance. Half of him hoped G would certainly give you some proof that will clarify all the pieces. Nonetheless, on Jacqueline’s recommendation, he now recorded their calls.
In these conversations, recordings of which had been performed for the FT, G appeared to scramble to save lots of the connection. In some calls, he talked about his work for the CIA and urged Troost to belief him. In others, he questioned Troost’s loyalty, warning that he wouldn’t be protected if he blew up the deal.
Every week later, on Might 10, Troost’s group pulled the plug, informing Bravard in writing that they had been rescinding the share-purchase settlement. “We’ve uncovered tangible proof that our firm was misled,” the letter learn, “attributable to intentional deceit by numerous events together with your self.”
“Are you kidding me?” G messaged Troost in response.
Which may have been the tip of it, solely it wasn’t. On Might 11, an unknown Iranian cellular quantity despatched Troost a video, which he didn’t open. Two days later, the identical quantity despatched Troost one other message: “48 hours to wire 10 million [in cryptocurrency] or your unblurred confession will go public.” On the identical time, the quantity began to message me on the FT, providing details about Troost’s operations.
After the boardroom assembly, Jacqueline didn’t depart her husband’s facet. Troost spent most of his time at dwelling, the bodily and psychological toll displaying, she mentioned. He was struggling to sleep, affected by panic assaults and developed a stutter. “He had black ideas, very black ideas,” she recalled.
Lastly accepting that the promised Ofac licence had been a fiction, Troost instructed Paramount DMCC to cease buying cargoes of Russian oil and wind up the corporate as quickly as potential, minutes of a June 7 board assembly present. In the meantime, his authorized group weighed what to do. Paramount had given G not less than $5.2mn for presumably fictitious bills and wired Arsari Group, the Indonesian firm, a really actual $51mn at his request. It had additionally shared reams of confidential data, a few of which had already began to floor in media stories attacking Troost.
Over the following six months, messages present that G and a small variety of collaborators sought to cross details about Troost’s supposed misdeeds to diplomats, journalists and others. Lots of the identical allegations have since appeared on an internet site, sanctionnielstroost.com, which additionally contains posts about Jacqueline and their youngsters. (Srivastava denied any involvement with the web site or the Iranian cellphone quantity. The web site stopped functioning after the FT sought remark, shortly earlier than this text was printed.)
On November 8 2023, Troost picked up a name from Mauron, the corporate director who had been accountable for Paramount DMCC in Dubai. He was furious. “You’ve f*cked me,” Mauron screamed. The UK authorities had simply imposed sanctions on Mauron and Paramount DMCC.
A bit over two months later, it was Troost’s turn. “Troost facilitates the unfettered commerce of Russian oil exterior the attain of UK and G7 sanctions,” the UK authorities mentioned, including his title and Paramount SA’s to the sanctions listing. Troost first learnt concerning the choice once I contacted him looking for remark.
I met Troost in individual for the primary time in September this yr. Paramount’s Geneva workplaces had been empty. Unable to pay its collectors or keep European financial institution accounts after the UK sanctions choice, the corporate entered liquidation in March. The owner had given six months’ grace, however that was virtually up. Pods of buying and selling desks had been gathering mud.
By then, I had been reporting on the corporate for nearly two years, however Troost had at all times declined my requests to speak. He had been hesitant, he now informed me, partly as a result of G had warned him I couldn’t be trusted. Together with his spouse sitting subsequent to him, the entire story poured out over the course of the following six hours.
Troost appeared extra like a mum or dad one may meet at a faculty soccer sport than a multimillionaire dealer. He wore trainers, beige trousers and an untucked navy shirt. “I really feel very ashamed,” he mentioned. “I feel I needed to consider what he was providing me.”
One in all G’s abilities had been to make himself appear indispensable by continually figuring out issues that solely he might resolve, Troost mentioned. Speaking to G had taken up a lot bandwidth that Troost had little time for the others in his life.
When Troost mentioned this, Jacqueline nodded, a pained look on her face. The depth of the connection had strained their marriage. He would get dwelling from the workplace, eat a rushed dinner, after which the cellphone calls would begin till the early hours of the morning. Finally, he began to sleep in one other bed room to cease disturbing his spouse. On one event G had even prompt Troost break up. “He form of created this, ‘I’m your greatest buddy. I’m your solely saviour,’” Troost mentioned.
Though the UK sanctions designation has solely blocked Troost’s entry to British monetary companies, it led to all of his banks and credit-card suppliers, wherever they’re situated, to droop his accounts. Lately, his son was requested to depart his British college on the premise that it might now not settle for his charges, no matter who paid them. “The impact of the UK sanctions,” Troost mentioned, “it’s — I can solely say one phrase: devastating.”
Troost insists he would by no means have been sanctioned had he not met and trusted G. Like Geneva-based Paramount SA, Dubai-based Paramount DMCC would have additionally ceased buying and selling all Russian oil earlier than the worth cap got here into power, he mentioned. Even so, Troost continued to go to Russia, travelling to Moscow on not less than three events in October and November 2022, in addition to in January final yr. He mentioned he had gone reluctantly, at G’s suggestion, to check the openness of Russian oil executives to the proposed licensing programme.
Final month, Troost’s title was included on a listing of proposed new EU sanctions seen by the FT, which means he might be focused by the bloc as quickly as this December. The itemizing cited his “affiliation” with a specific delivery firm; however Troost shared paperwork with me displaying he had offered the enterprise in 2018. The EU declined to remark.
The view that Troost has been a significant participant in Moscow’s sanctions-busting oil-trading system was largely a results of misinformation unfold by G, he alleged. However whereas these charged with a criminal offense can defend themselves in court docket, targets of sanctions shouldn’t have that chance.
One month earlier, I met Gaurav Srivastava for the primary time for breakfast within the London resort the place he was staying, the £1,000-a-night 4 Seasons on Park Lane. We had already been talking by phone and exchanging messages for a number of months. He ordered eggs on toast, French-press espresso and orange juice. A stack of beaded bracelets poked out from his shirt cuff, as he stretched his arm throughout the again of the sales space.
By his telling, Troost had pursued him for months. The target of their partnership had at all times been to diversify Paramount away from Russia and by no means to realize an Ofac licence. The truth is, Srivastava mentioned, it was he who had raised considerations about Troost’s continued involvement in Russia after an audit of the enterprise carried out by Bravard had revealed billions of {dollars} passing by way of Paramount DMCC and funds to amass a stake in an oil terminal in Turkey. When challenged on the transactions, Troost had disliked the scrutiny and unlawfully terminated the partnership, he mentioned.
In our earlier exchanges, Srivastava denied ever having claimed any type of relationship with the CIA. “The CIA is the go-to factor for his tales,” he mentioned of Troost. “His deflection method.” However a couple of days earlier, I had listened to among the phone recordings Troost made within the ultimate week of their relationship. In them, Srivastava talked instantly concerning the CIA, his position as a covert operative with the company and getting an Ofac licence to commerce with Russia.
Once I pressed him for an evidence, fairly than alarm, a glance of pleasure flickered throughout his face. He dropped his head, hunched his shoulders and leaned over the desk. “Niels has instruments and folks and abilities which are being supported by a hostile international energy and good relationships, possibly instantly, to the Huge Bear,” he mentioned, in a thinly veiled reference to Putin. “They’ll do quite a lot of issues. Can they make a recording? In fact. Are they serving to Niels? I’m certain.”
Bravard, in the meantime, informed me he was engaged by Srivastava as a “fiduciary” to carry the stake in Paramount on his behalf partly for tax causes, after which to audit the enterprise forward of its deliberate relocation to the US. “I by no means mentioned or implied that I had any reference to the US authorities or the FBI, and don’t have any proof that Gaurav ever characterised me this fashion,” he mentioned. “The CIA allegations are all completely bogus, an entire invention by Troost.”
Srivastava confirmed some components of Troost’s account. He had, for instance, pressed Troost not to reply to my questions. “My perception at the moment was that Monetary Occasions was being paid off by Trafigura to lie about Troost and Tom Wilson was a paid hack,” he mentioned. Most components he disputed, together with the accusation of getting siphoned Paramount funds for himself. However information supplied by Troost’s attorneys present that instantly after Paramount loaned Arsari $51mn, Srivastava and his associates pressed the Indonesian firm to switch $25mn to a US entity he managed, which he used to finish the acquisition of the California mansion.
Srivastava denied the Paramount mortgage was related to the funds he acquired from Arsari. Arsari didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
Srivastava has retained attorneys from the worldwide agency Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe to symbolize him in his ongoing battle with Troost, who he has sought to sue in Switzerland for illegal termination of the partnership and for defamation. Over the months we communicated, Srivastava proffered many counter narratives to Troost’s allegations and challenged quite a few elements, together with the date of their first interplay and what was mentioned in numerous conferences. He denied meddling in Troost’s marital life, “deceptive anybody about my citizenship standing” or failing to offer invoices for $5.2mn in Paramount funds. In an extended assertion Srivastava later despatched, he known as Troost’s story “fiction” and repeatedly accused him of mendacity.
However finally, he supplied little proof to credibly help his account. A number of folks, together with US lobbyist Ankit Desai, who helped Srivastava arrange some conferences with US officers within the spring of 2023, and Basic Clark, mentioned that they had additionally been deceived by Srivastava after which terminated their respective consulting contracts with him when he didn’t pay. In hindsight, the cash stopped when Troost stopped funding him, they mentioned. (Desai has since lobbied on Troost’s behalf, in what he described as an try and make amends.)
Troost, against this, shared lots of of contemporaneous messages and emails, voice recordings and greater than a dozen different folks, together with Paramount workers and advisers, who had been capable of corroborate many components of his story. This was traditional Troost, Srivastava informed me. “Troost is the grasp sufferer,” he mentioned. “He is aware of easy methods to contact into your deepest feelings and you are feeling so sorry for him . . . however that facade solely lasts for a brief second of time.”
Troost’s response was concise: “He’s a monster.”
