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.