After the deal between Gaurav Srivastava and Niels Troost closed, Gaurav is kept in the dark as to what the company he is now a part owner of is doing. As it starts to dawn on Gaurav that Troost's people are trying to hide something, his spidey senses tell him something is going on behind his back - and he orders an audit of the company.

Host Zach Abramowitz coaxes out of Gaurav Srivastava the first red flag in his relationship with Niels Troost: Niels Troost has accused other past business partners of his of being... Fake spies! In a memo sent by Niels Troost to Gaurav Srivastava, Troost tells Gaurav of "Mr. K." who claimed he was a Special Agent working for the CIA and that he had very strong connections to "The Agency" in the U.S.

Intro of episode 4 of @TargetedPodcast  tells the story of "one of the most complex and aggressive smear campaigns" host Zach Abramowitz has ever seen. Practically overnight, Gaurav Srivastava found himself in the center of a coordinated effort to ruin his career, his reputation and even his family's standing in their own community. This story is about how a business dispute escalated into a full blown reputation war - one of the world's premier traders of Russian oil who has since been sanctioned by the UK, the EU and Switzerland for violating Russian sanctions. Together, Niels Troost and Gaurav Srivastava planned to restructure Paramount's energy & commodity business, shifting its focus away from Russian oil, which was now being heavily sanctioned by the West, into new markets. But things quickly fell apart. In early 2023, Gaurav and his team discovered financial irregularities including asset transfers that were unaccounted for, undisclosed business dealings, and evidence Russian oil trade were still happening, despite the sanctions.