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.