Keep knowledgeable with free updates
Merely signal as much as the Commodities myFT Digest — delivered on to your inbox.
The EU has imposed sanctions on Dutch nationwide Niels Troost over his alleged involvement in buying and selling Russian crude oil above the value cap set by western nations in response to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Troost, who lives in Switzerland, is the primary EU nationwide to be focused by the bloc for buying and selling Russian oil.
In a press release to the Monetary Occasions, Troost criticised the choice, which he claimed was the results of a marketing campaign by a former enterprise associate to magnify his hyperlinks to Moscow after their enterprise relationship collapsed.
An FT investigation revealed final week reported that the enterprise associate, Gaurav Kumar Srivastava, had informed Troost that he was a covert operative working with the CIA and promised to safe a licence from the US Treasury to permit Troost’s firm to legally commerce Russian crude above the cap. Since Troost recognized the alleged deception and terminated the partnership in Could 2023, Troost has accused Srivastava of embarking on a marketing campaign to destroy his popularity.
Srivastava has denied the allegations and accused Troost of mendacity.
Troost and one in every of his firm’s administrators, Francois Mauron, had been positioned underneath sanctions by the UK in February 2023 and November 2022, respectively.
The EU sanctions cited the choice by Troost’s Geneva-based Paramount Power and Commodities SA to transfer its Russian oil trading activity to a Dubai-based subsidiary in June 2022. That firm, Paramount DMCC, then “repeatedly traded Russian crude oil” at costs above the $60-a-barrel cap launched in December 2022, the EU stated.
Troost has stated he was suggested by his attorneys that UAE-subsidiaries weren’t required to adjust to the value cap if the European mum or dad firm was not concerned in its operations and subsequently recused himself and Paramount SA from all involvement after the foundations got here into place.
The EU additionally cited Troost’s alleged “affiliation” with a Hong-Kong primarily based ship charterer known as Livna Transport, which it stated had additionally traded Russian oil above the cap.
In October, representatives for Srivastava shared info with the FT that made comparable allegations about ongoing ties between Troost and Livna. When the FT sought remark from Troost he shared paperwork exhibiting he had bought the enterprise in 2018.
In a response to the FT, Livna stated Troost has had “little interest in the administration or possession of the corporate” since October 2018. Livna “charters vessels for its purchasers, and the corporate doesn’t undertake and has by no means undertaken any buying and selling actions itself”, it stated, including that it “adheres to all relevant legal guidelines and rules in all its actions”.
Referring to the EU transfer, a spokesperson for Troost stated: “This choice has no foundation in regulation or reality. Neither Mr Troost nor his firms have ever breached any legal guidelines or rules, and he has had no company affiliation to Livna Transport since he bought shares within the firm in 2018.
“The EU has aligned itself with a well-reported misinformation marketing campaign associated to a enterprise dispute.”
The assertion added that Troost was “not conscious of any investigation into him within the Netherlands, Switzerland or the US” and would problem the EU sanctions designation, which it stated had breached “his human rights and EU regulation”.
In a press release in response, Srivastava stated: “The European Union meticulously investigates the people and entities it sanctions. The proof has spoken.”
