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 a covert OFAC license obtained by Srivastava, who had allegedly misled Troost into believing that 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 solely 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 Treasury 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, and Switzerland for various violations related to trading in illicit Russian oil. His primary supplier was sanctioned by the United States (OFAC).
