The targeting of Gaurav Srivastava

Intro of episode 4 of @TargetedPodcast  tells the story of "one of the most complex and aggressive smear campaigns" host Zach Abramowitz has ever see. 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. When Gaurav confronted Troost, the partnership imploded. Troost removed him from the company, and lawsuits naturally followed.

But then came something even more cynical: The media attacks. Suddenly, Gaurav's name was everywhere, but not in the way you'd want. Obscure online outlets started publishing unverified accusations by the dozens, which were later picked up by a former WSJ writer on his blog, followed by the WSJ and the FT. A Wikipedia page also appeared about him - it was later taken down for being an attack page. And yet - what started as a niche business dispute, the kind that happens on a daily basis, now became an international reputation crisis. And here's where it gets really interesting: Gaurav isn't the first person Troost has accused of something like this. In fact Troost once wrote a detailed memo to Gaurav about a former business associate -- someone Troost had also claimed told him he was working for the CIA.

So - why did these same accusations suddenly resurface about Gaurav? Why did so many reputible journalists accept them at face value? That is exactly what will be unpacked in ep. 4 of  @TargetedPodcast  - because when you look past the headlines, what emerges isn't just a contentious business dispute - it's a cautionary tale about how easy it is to manufacture narrative, and how difficult it is to fight back once that narrative takes hold.