TIMELINE
Q1 2022
Srivastava and Niels Troost, a Dutch trader of Russian oil, are introduced by a mutual acquaintance at a time when the threat of Western sanctions was intensifying against Russia, in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Q2 2022
Troost expresses enthusiasm for the prospect of a partnership with Srivastava and a plan to diversify away from Russian oil. Troost informs Srivastava of several business partners he fell out with, including one that he accused of being a “fake spy” when Troost waded into the murky world of attempting to trade sanctioned Venezuelan oil - an allegation he goes on to repeat against Srivastava.
July 2022
Srivastava took a 50% stake in Troost’s Swiss companies Paramount Energy & Commodities SA and Harvest Commodities SA. The pair hired a best-in-class team of lawyers, accountants and investments bankers. Chief among their tasks was to move the parent company to the US to get better access to credit and new business opportunities.
Q3 - Q4 2022
Srivastava worked to develop several business opportunities in Indonesia, Congo, DRC, Guyana, Libya, Pakistan, South Africa, and Turkey, among others. During this time, Srivastava’s team attempted to begin a third-party audit of Paramount so that Troost could be paid the ex-dividend that was agreed as a condition of Srivastava’s investment. But they were not granted access to the books.
Q1 - Q2 2023
Srivastava’s team were finally granted access to the books to begin the audit. The audit revealed that: Troost was offloading Paramount’s into entities owned exclusively by him; Troost tried to purchase Turkey’s Zeyhan Oil Terminal (central laundering tool used by the Russians to obfuscate their oil’s provenance and offload it into Europe) without informing Srivastava; and Troost was servicing previous “shareholder loans” for large amounts and paying excessive fees in consulting contracts to his staff and associates. Worst of all, Troost was still trading Russian oil.
April - May 2023
In the few weeks that followed a confrontation with Troost, Troost began creating an alternative narrative which would absolve him of any wrongdoing. This culminated with revoking Srivastava’s 50% ownership of the Swiss companies and removing Srivastava’s holding company from the share register in Switzerland. Srivastava immediately filed civil and criminal complaints in the US, Switzerland and the UAE (ongoing).
Q3 2023 - Present
Troost - 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 - accused Srivastava of being a “fake spy” who allegedly facilitated his trading of Russian oil under an alleged OFAC license (despite never exchanging any communication or documentation on the matter).
As his claim was evidently too weak to stand in court, he launched a massive online disinformation campaign to try to discredit Srivastava. Hundreds of paid articles, Wikipedia entries and YouTube videos appeared online positing the same story. These entries, launched en masse, created sufficient noise to be ultimately picked up by the WSJ and FT.
Nov 2023 - Jan 2025
Unfortunately for Troost, this attempt at creating a scandal by offering an alternative narrative did not stand the scrutiny of Swiss courts and serious law enforcement agencies. The only lawsuit he filed against Srivastava was dismissed by Swiss authorities.
Further, between November 2023 and January 2025, 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.