Executive Summary

Gaurav Srivastava was first introduced to Niels Troost, a longtime, savvy Dutch trader of Russian oil in early 2022, when looming sanctions against Russia posed an existential threat to Troost’s business. Srivastava took a stake in two of Troost’s companies  with the goal of pivoting them away from Russian oil and building an international portfolio of non-Russian business.  

In the winter of 2023, a third-party audit revealed that Troost was continuing to trade Russian oil, as well as an attempted undisclosed purchase of a Turkish oil terminal -  the primary laundering facility for Russia’s illicit oil trade.

Within a few weeks of being confronted over these findings, Troost revoked Srivastava’s ownership of the companies in question, and an aggressive, vindictive disinformation campaign was launched against Srivastava, offering an implausible cover up for Troost’s sanctionable actions:

Initially, hundreds of articles popped up overnight in pay-to-play online publications claiming that Niels Troost was duped into believing he was operating under an OFAC license obtained by Srivastava, who had allegedly misled Troost to believe he was a CIA spy. These articles would have you believe that Niels Troost - a sophisticated, savvy, experienced oil trader of nearly 30 years - continued to trade in illicit, sanctioned Russian oil based soley on the word of his new business partner, Srivastava, having never set foot inside a CIA or US Treasury office, never having met a CIA or US Teasury official, never having held or seen a single piece of paper to attest to this imaginary license. Within a short period of time, the “fake spy” narrative was inserted into multiple Wikipedia entries and AI-generated Youtube “news” videos. As the story caught on, it graduated to a respected financial-fraud blog, and from there to legitimate media such as the WSJ and the FT.

Unfortunately for Niels Troost, this attempt at an alternative narrative did not stand the scrutiny of serious law enforcement agencies: Between November 2023 and January 2025, Niels Troost, his companies and related entities were sanctioned by the UK, The European Union, Switzerland and the United States (OFAC) for various violations related to trading in illicit Russian oil.

How It All Began

Niels Troost, a longtime, savvy Dutch trader of Russian oil, first sought Gaurav Srivastava out in early 2022 as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine presented an existential threat to his company Paramount Energy & Commodities SA. Many European entities were either closing off or distancing themselves from Russia generally - and Russian oil specifically - in anticipation of sanctions restrictions targeting the Russian oil sector. Troost’s business relationships and credit facilities were drying up, and fast. Banks were distancing themselves from him and his credit was being shut off. Troost wanted to diversity his business away from Russia and away from oil and Srivastava was able to offer him his long-standing contacts and banking relationships, diversified business opportunities in other commodities, and significant credit facilities.

The goal was to pivot away from Russian oil and build an international portfolio of non-Russian business. Troost brought a long-established history as an oil trader while Srivastava brought significant capital, credit, and extensive business contacts outside of the Russian oil sector.

In the late summer of 2022, and after extensive planning with Troost about the future of his business, Srivastava took a 50% stake in Paramount Energy & Commodities SA and Harvest Commodities SA. He purchased the shares for a nominal price of 50,000 CHF with the agreement that following a third-party audit Troost would take an ex-dividend that represented the value of the company on June 1, 2022, which was estimated to be somewhere between $200-350M. This is an important point because much of the press coverage of the business arrangement suggests that Srivastava under-paid for a company worth hundreds of millions. The reality was that Srivastava invested in a distressed asset that he sought to leverage into other sectors and geographies. It was a good business deal for both sides.

Building A New Business

To build their new business, Troost and Srivastava set out a plan to lay the building blocks for success. Srivastava hired a best-in-class team of lawyers, accountants and investments bankers including Baker Hostetler, Grant Thornton, and KPMG. Chief among their tasks was to move Paramount Energy & Commodities SA’s parent company to the US so that it had better access to credit and new business opportunities. Troost envisioned a US-based parent company called Unicom, and Srivastava concurred with this plan. As the owner of several US-based companies, Srivastava understood that  it was critical  the company meet all relevant US laws and compliance regulations.

They also engaged lobbying firms and other representatives to develop relationships in Washington, DC in support of this new non-Russian, diversified commodities business effort. Srivastava – who up until this point had made very few political donations – started making donations from his own personal funds in support of this effort under the guidance of these advisors.

Throughout the fall of 2022, Srivastava worked to develop several business opportunities for Paramount Energy & Commodities SA in Indonesia, Congo, DRC, Guyana, Libya, Pakistan, South Africa, and Turkey, among others.

As they continued to establish new US-based parent company, Srivastava asked his team to assess the compliance risk of Paramount DMCC, a United Arab Emirates-based subsidiary of Paramount Energy & Commodities SA that Troost had established years prior. As the UAE had not introduced any sanctions on Russia, Srivastava wanted to ensure that the entity would not run afoul of US regulations once its new parent company was established in the US. Baker Hostetler consulted the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on the matter. In all of Srivastava and his team’s correspondence with Troost and his representatives, the only mention of OFAC was in this context.

During this time, Srivastava team attempted on several occasions to begin a third-party audit of Paramount Energy & Commodities SA so that Troost could be paid the ex-dividend that was agreed as a condition of Srivastava’s investment. But for myriad reasons, they were not granted access to any of the books. In fact, at no point did Srivastava or any of his representatives have access to the Paramount Energy & Commodities SA, Harvest Commodities or Paramount DMCC offices or systems, bank accounts, or books. Also during this time, for his part, Troost and his team resisted the compliance and disclosure efforts and obfuscated and delayed on many of the new business development lines for reasons that would only become clear to Srivastava later.

The Audit

In the winter of 2023, Srivastava’s team was working diligently on all of these issues. They sought to conclude the third-party audit so that Troost could be paid his ex-dividend, bring Paramount Energy & Commodities SA and its subsidiary Paramount DMCC, Harvest Commodities SA, under a newly created US-based parent company, and get to work in growing the business. Srivastava’s team was able to begin a partial auditing exercise in April 2023 designed to both seek a valuation for the entities and to clarify Srivastava and his team’s understanding of the structures for both organizational and compliance purposes.

The audit revealed that Troost was offloading Paramount Energy & Commodities SA assets into separate entities owned exclusively by Troost. Notably, Troost had tried to purchase an oil terminal in Turkey without informing Srivastava. The attempted purchase, Turkey’s Zeyhan Oil Terminal, is the central laundering tool used by the Russians to obfuscate their oil’s provenance and offload it into Europe. Troost was also servicing previous “shareholder loans” for large amounts as well as paying excessive fees in consulting contracts to his staff and associates. Worse still, there were specious, seemingly fake invoices for tens of millions of dollars. Most distressing of all, it was clear that Troost was continuing to trade Russian oil.  

When Srivastava’s team began to question Troost about these issues, the situation immediately deteriorated. It was the end of April, beginning of May 2023. In retrospect, Srivastava realized that Troost, with his activities now exposed, concocted a plan to sever their business agreement and discredit Srivastava to hedge against any disclosures he might make about these serious misdeeds.

Things Unravel

During the few days immediately following his being confronted, Troost sent emails and had calls where he wrote and said a series of things that Srivastava understands now were an effort to create an alternative narrative which would absolve Troost of any wrongdoing. It was a rapid cover-up and the origin of the disinformation campaign he and his associates have waged against Srivastava ever since. It is not insignificant that right at this moment, Troost received a letter from Switzerland’s Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Swiss sanctions authority, asking about his business activities, only exacerbating the pressure he felt.

In early May 2023, Troost summarily revoked Srivastava’s 50% ownership of Paramount Energy & Commodities SA and Harvest Commmodities SA and removed Srivastava’s holding company from the share register in Switzerland. The same day, Troost fired Baker Hostetler. Srivastava immediately filed civil and criminal complaints in the US, Switzerland and the UAE and these actions are still ongoing.

Thus began an aggressive, scortched-earth disinformation campaign against Srivastava, offering an implausible cover up for these sanctionable actions.

The Disinformation Campaign

The disinformation campaign against Srivastava has been vast and well-orchestrated and hinges on a curated, self-referencing ecosystem that seems to have been expertly designed.

Anyone who has come across this disinformation campaign knows that Troost has tried to label Srivastava as a “fake spy” who pretended to have deep connections with the CIA to gain his trust. Unsurprisingly, Troost made a nearly identical  “fake spy” accusation years ago against another spurned business partner, when Troost waded into the also murky world of attempting to trade sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

Troost is a savvy, experienced and sophisticated oil trader who has a nearly three-decade history of trading Russian oil through entities including Taurus Petroleum Services, Tenergy Energy, Rosneft Trading, and Paramount. And despite his army of lawyers and accountants, he would now have you believe that he was so naïve that he thought he could magically circumvent a sanctions regime that the EU, the UK, and the US were tirelessly building out, by obtaining a special “OFAC license” to trade Russian oil.

Moreover, according to Troost, he was convinced to pursue this “OFAC license” scheme by a person (supposedly Srivastava) who represented himself as a CIA spy. Those are all gross fabrications, but Troost is so desperate that he’s concocted an elaborate fairytale to try to stay in business.

Troost has enlisted the corroboration of former business associates whom he could pressure to make phony statements. He has launched a massive online disinformation campaign to try to discredit Srivastava. Hundreds of articles have appeared across the worldwide press essentially positing the same story – that Srivastava impersonated a CIA spy to defraud Troost out of millions of dollars. Deep-fake YouTube Videos and specious edits on Wikipedia followed. Troost’s lawyers have written to many of Srivastava associates with all of these spurious claims.

Troost has played purportedly incriminating audio recordings for the media, yet these have never been shared or verifed. Interestingly, despite a defamation suit filed in Switzerland against Troost, he has never presented these recordings to the court in his defense. Instead, his lawyer has sought to settle the dispute. But this case and others defamation has filed, remain ongoing.

In short, the disinformation campaign seeks absolve Troost of his sanctioned trading of Russian oil in wartime. Some facts, though, cannot be manipulated. Four different jurisdictions—the UK, the EU, Switzerland, and the US—have all seen through these falsehoods and sanctioned Troost or his affiliated entities.

Legal cases

Gaurav Srivastava has filed civil and criminal complaints against Niels Troost in the US, Switzerland and the UAE, and these actions are still ongoing.

Niels Trosst had filed a criminal case against Gaurav Srivastava in Switzerland, which has been dismissed by the Geneva Criminal Appeals Chamber.

The High Court of Delhi (new Delhi, India) has issued an injunction against Google (India), Yahoo (India), Twitter (India), Youtube (India) and several Indian news agencies to remove “defamatory articles” against Gaurav Srivastava published on their platforms. The court found that several news outlets accepted payment to place defamatory articles against Gaurav Srivastava.