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_{Banner: James O’Brien/OCCRP}

_{Originally published in OCCRP on December 1, 2023. By Will Jordan and Anand Mangnale. https://www.occrp.org/en/project/dominica-passports-of-the-caribbean/businessman-who-bought-dominica-passport-and-funded-uk-tories-now-under-investigation-in-india}

Key Findings

Businessman Gursamarjit Singh, a major donor to the U.K.’s Conservative Party, paid over $100,000 in March 2013 to obtain a Dominican passport. Last year, Indian police issued a “Look Out Circular” against Singh, following a complaint alleging fraud filed by his sister-in-law. Singh denies the allegations. The Hinwick House, an 18-bedroom home Singh bought in 2015, is now on sale for nearly 8 million British pounds.

Back in the early 2010s, Gursamarjit Singh was thriving. His start-up company, IndiaHomes, was promising to “revolutionize” India’s real estate market by offering tech-led, online-only property sales services. As the business prospered, Singh himself amassed a property portfolio in India and the U.K. worth millions of dollars.

But in April 2015, Singh stepped down as the firm’s operational managing director during a property market crash. The next year, IndiaHomes went out of business, leaving scores of customers out of pocket. Singh then resigned as the company’s registered director.

By that point, Singh had given up his Indian citizenship and purchased a passport from Dominica, a Caribbean island nation that sells its citizenship around the world. With the global access offered by his new nationality, Singh left his former life behind, and moved to the U.K. He started using his nickname, “Sam” Singh, became a major Conservative party donor, and bought a mansion now on sale for about $10 million.

OCCRP has obtained a cache of documents detailing Singh’s business affairs, including bank statements, company documents, and invoices. Together with newly available legal and corporate records, they show how transnational elites can use so-called “golden passports,” coupled with financial tools such as offshore trusts, to move money, travel, and build a new life abroad.

Last year, Indian police issued a so-called “Look Out Circular” against Singh, following a complaint alleging fraud filed by his sister-in-law in India. The circular requires authorities to watch for him at border crossings and arrest or detain him for questioning if he enters the country, according to two Indian lawyers. Police have not formally filed charges, but online records show the complaint is still open.

In a response to a request for comment, a Delhi-based lawyer for Singh denied the allegations and told OCCRP that “the Look Out Circular relates to an unfortunate private familial dispute between our client and his sister-in-law who has personal enmity against him.”

Meanwhile, scores of IndiaHomes customers have banded together online for years to complain that the company short-changed them. No legal action has been taken against Singh or the company over the complaints, which Singh denies.

Singh has long since been set up in the U.K., where he has bought high-end property and established companies using his new nationality, and mingled among high society.

Singh’s lawyer told OCCRP that IndiaHomes was “a successful venture” and “all the decisions were taken by the executives / board of the Company and not by our client.” The lawyer added that IndiaHomes was “a multi-investor and multi-director company and the [sic] all the decisions were taken by the executives / board of the Company and not by our client.”

The lawyer said “there is no doubt or lack of clarity” as to whether Singh had “the financial ability to buy properties or invest in any other businesses and there is no legal restriction

on the same.” The lawyer said that Singh’s Dominica citizenship was acquired “with the purpose of easing business travel and avoiding lengthy delays for cumbersome visa restrictions.”

About the Project

Singh’s name was among roughly 7,700 reviewed as part of Dominica: Passports of the Caribbean, an international collaboration between OCCRP and partners. The project examined a system that British authorities say has involved “clear and evident abuse”. (Read more about the project here.)

‘On Your Side’

Singh’s online real estate agency, IndiaHomes, framed itself as a tech-driven innovator in the country’s rapidly expanding property market. One TV advertisement opened with quickfire shots of unscrupulous real estate agents laughing menacingly into the camera while waving wads of cash. Unlike those crooks, the , IndiaHomes was “on your side.”

_{A photograph showing the lobby of the building that housed IndiaHomes in Delhi.}

IndiaHomes worked by getting discounts from construction companies — usually between one and 2.5 percent of the property’s value — and promising to pass the savings on to customers. In one case, the company promised a discount of about $2,500, one percent of the value of a roughly $250,000 property sale. However, the buyer said he never received the discount. (Singh’s lawyer said that: “During his tenure (at the firm), IndiaHomes never issued any passback or discounting payments to anyone.”)

When customers bought their homes, they received “credit notes,” which IndiaHomes pledged to redeem. But, crucially, the customers needed to pay the full price up-front before claiming the discounts.

Scores of customers have said that, once the money was paid, they were not able to get their money from IndiaHomes. Extensive complaints against the company appeared on India’s National Consumer Complaint forum, while homebuyers banded together informally in WhatsApp groups and online forums to try to get their discounts.

One customer, Sumit Gautam, made a complaint to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, writing that “after more than five years and consistent follow up… we have still not received this brokerage discount.”

“My humble request [is] to please take appropriate action against IndiaHomes,” he wrote.

No legal action has been brought against IndiaHomes over the accusations, which Singh’s lawyers said he “categorically denies.” Singh’s India-based lawyers said that the accusations — which were reported extensively in openDemocracy in 2021 — were “baseless and denied in toto.”

Singh’s lawyers said openDemocracy was subject to an ongoing investigation by New Delhi police over the article. The publication said it had received no notice of the investigation.

OCCRP obtained nine credit notes dated between 2011 and 2015, which had either been posted online or provided to reporters by customers who said they had not been paid the money they were owed. One note, dated Jan. 20, 2015, said that IndiaHomes’ parent company, India World Technologies Pvt. Ltd., “reserves the right in its absolute discretion to amend the terms and conditions any time without prior information.”

_{Credit: IndiaHomes.com An archived screenshot of the IndiaHomes website, which is now offline.}

By 2014, India’s property market had slowed down. As IndiaHomes started struggling, Singh was spending. A document outlining the company’s response to a due diligence report commissioned by shareholders showed that auditors flagged several of Singh’s expenditures that year. The document indicates the auditors had found “unsatisfactory supportings” for payments worth around $160,000 to a life coach, the online retailer Amazon, as well as travel, hotel, and entertainment expenses.

The same report stated that IndiaHomes “uses Marketing Agencies to disburse and manage passbacks and discounting payments.” It added that around $700,000 worth of discounts were “pending disbursal post collection” at the end of 2014, indicating IndiaHomes was in possession of funds that were due to be paid out. It is not clear how much of this money was ever paid out.

In April 2015, Singh stepped down as managing director of the company but retained his shareholding.

IndiaHomes announced in April 2016 that it had stopped business activities. The company was not closed down, however, but instead was placed under the ownership of successive offshore companies in Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. Corporate registries do not say who owns these companies. Singh still held his shares in IndiaHomes as recently as 2019, according to Indian company filings.

Legally Dominican

While at IndiaHomes, Singh had been laying the groundwork for a life beyond India.

On March 27, 2013, Singh paid $104,765 to legally obtain a Dominican passport — which required him to give up his Indian nationality under Indian law prohibiting dual citizenship. The new Dominica passport allowed travel to 130 countries without a visa or with a visa on arrival, as well as the possibility of obtaining a 10-year U.S. visa.

Singh had also been buying properties in the U.K. In 2012, property records show, he bought a house in Buckinghamshire in the U.K. for about 3.1 million British pounds (around $4 million) via a British Virgin Islands company, Linkfield Group Ltd, with part of the cost covered by a mortgage from ABN Amro bank in the Channel Islands.

The offshore company Linkfield also held an investment portfolio of stocks and bonds, through a Barclays Bank account in Singapore, worth nearly $5 million, bank statements obtained by OCCRP show. (Reporters cross-referenced foreign exchange rates during the dates mentioned in the statements and checked the Buckinghamshire property investment against public records.)

In 2015 Sam Singh added Hinwick House, pictured here, to his portfolio.

In 2015, using his Dominican citizenship, Singh added Hinwick House — an 18-bedroom home modeled on the original Buckingham Palace — to his property portfolio for another 4 million pounds (about $6 million at the time).

As well as the U.K. property, Singh also began integrating himself into elevated British social circles. Between 2014 and 2019, he donated a little over 270,000 pounds to the ruling Conservative Party, financial disclosures show. He has not donated anything since then.

_{charity, Elephant Family. (Credit: Sam Singh/Instagram Sam Singh is seen with now-Queen Camilla at an event for the wildlife)}

In 2016, Singh was named a trustee of the Elephant Family, a wildlife charity that counts King Charles and Queen Camilla as its so-called Royal Presidents.

Queen Camilla’s nephew, the recently knighted Sir Ben Elliot, became a director of Singh’s newly-formed British business, Real World Technologies Ltd, in April 2017. Elliot was chairman of the Conservative Party for three years between 2019 and 2022. Former Conservative member of parliament Baroness Kate Rock was also on the Real World board of directors. (Elliot and Rock did not respond to requests for comment.)

The business said it would use artificial intelligence to offer state-of-the-art online real estate services. As of last year, the company had just 20 pounds in cash assets, and was owed just over 10,000 pounds, company financial statements show. Its books say it has zero employees.

Elliott resigned from his position in 2019, and the baroness stepped down early the next year. The company’s subsidiary now does business as an online estate agent operating in Dubai named “Memorable.”

_{Sam Singh is seen outside 10 Downing Street in this social media photo. (Credit: Sam Singh/Instagram)}

After making his UK move, the IndiaHomes founder collected photos of himself pheasant shooting, standing outside 10 Downing Street, and smiling alongside Theresa May and Boris Johnson, two Tory party leaders who would both later become prime ministers. Johnson even signed the visitors book at Hinwick House, according to a photo Singh posted on his now-private Instagram account.

May and Johnson did not respond to requests for comment.

Singh’s ‘Capo di Capi’

Singh also had joint business interests with Arvind Khanna, an Indian politician and businessman who was charged in India this year with profiting from an allegedly corrupt military aircraft deal involving a research agency of the Indian Defense Ministry. (The case has not yet gone to trial.)

Company records from the Indian business registry show that, in 2006, Singh jointly invested in a company that developed a Delhi hotel with an investment company majority owned by Khanna. The company was sold in 2012.

In an email exchange with his sister-in-law, Priyanka Singh, that was used as part of her civil complaint, Singh also said that Khanna’s portfolio was among “various pools of investments” that were managed at the time by his office staff.

Singh publicly posted a birthday message for Khanna on Instagram in 2020, calling him “Capo di Capi,” an Italian mafia term meaning boss of bosses. Singh’s lawyers have described the comment as “a private joke between old friends.”

In March 2018 — after IndiaHomes had ceased trading and Singh had stepped down as director but remained a shareholder — its parent entity bought a loss-making aviation company owned by Khanna that had no operating profit and no fixed assets for $300,000, the Indian business registry shows.

Singh’s India-based lawyers said that Singh did not have a business relationship with Khanna, who was known to Singh as a friend “amongst his hundreds of other personal friends.”

Khanna did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Winning in India’

At a glamorous launch event in May 2014 for his book “Winning in India” — a compendium of business lessons by India’s top entrepreneurs, including Singh himself — Singh talked of the importance of family. His presentation included a sign stating, “family is the raison d’etre for Indians.”

_{Sam Singh seen at the launch of “Winning in India.” (Credit: Winning in India/Facebook)}

At the same time, Singh was engaged in financial dealings with his own family that would eventually lead to a heated legal dispute.

In 2021, his brother’s wife, Priyanka Singh, filed a civil lawsuit against Singh in the Delhi High Court, seeking the equivalent of about $2.3 million in damages. In her complaint, she said she had transferred around $1.4 million to three of his companies in 2013. Priyanka became a director in all three firms. But she had little control over the companies and was “merely made to sign some documents,” she said in her complaint.

Priyanka declined to comment.

In her claim — which includes bank statements, emails from Singh, and his legal response — Priyanka said that Singh had told her that her money would be put into a “safe investment” of property for around seven or eight years. She said she was told her money would triple in that time, but in reality received nothing besides one payment in May 2019 and lost her original stake. Priyanka accused Singh of “seeking to fritter away” her assets “by parking them in shell companies, some of them on foreign soil.”

Priyanka said in her claim that Singh paid her 5 million rupees, worth roughly $70,000 at the time of payment in May 2019, but nothing else.

By the time she launched legal action against him, Singh had cut her off, an email exchange submitted as an exhibit in the case shows. In one message to Priyanka the year before, as the two were arguing over the return of her investment, Singh had described her allegations as “naive and ludicrous.”

Sam Singh pictured with former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In a legal response to her complaint, Singh said her allegations were “wrong, frivolous and misconceived.” He admitted he has not returned her money to her, but blamed a downturn in the property market.

The lawyer for Singh denied that the email exchange submitted as part of the court case was real, and said the emails were part of a “smear campaign” launched by his sister-in- law.

The case is ongoing and no judgment has been issued. Priyanka has also filed a criminal complaint to Indian police. That complaint remains open, though police have not filed formal charges.

Singh currently splits his time between the U.K. and United Arab Emirates, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is running a new property venture focused on artificial intelligence and styles himself as a “serial entrepreneur.”

Before the U.K. move, Singh’s book had offered pearls of wisdom, including “flamboyance is admired, but rarely rewarded.” He is now trying to sell Hinwick House, which is listed for nearly 8 million pounds.

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_{Banner: James O’Brien}

_{Originally published in OCCRP on May 2, 2022. By Anand Mangnale (OCCRP) and Alina Tsogoeva (OCCRP ID). https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/below-the-radar-how-an-indian-tycoons-petrochemicals-empire-quietly-dodged-iran-sanctions}

Key Findings

In January 2020, Mumbai customs authorities seized a cargo of petrochemicals, commissioned by Dubai-based Petrochem and involving several apparent proxy companies on suspicion that its origin was misdeclared. Under questioning, the captain admitted the documents were falsified and the ship had been loaded in Iran. Shipping documents show how false paperwork disguised the trade in Iranian petrochemicals in violation of U.S. and other sanctions.

Satellite tracking data suggests at least two other vessels associated with Petrochem’s trade followed a similar pattern of movements consistent with sanction-busting.

Indian tycoon Yogesh Mehta is not shy about his success. In dozens of interviews, YouTube videos, and Twitter posts, he recounts how his hard work and ingenuity made his Dubai-based business, Petrochem, the number one chemical distributor in the Middle East and Africa.

But throughout the many accounts of his rise, Mehta has omitted one element of his business’s operations: a hidden trade in sanctioned Iranian petrochemicals.

_{Credit: ABLF Yogesh Mehta.}

The United States has applied various sanctions against Tehran since 1979, most recently to try to prevent the country from developing nuclear weapons. The European Union has similar sanctions in place.

In search of hard currency, Iran has consistently sought to evade these restrictions. It has found the most success exporting petrochemicals, which are much harder to trace than oil shipments. Its exports of petrochemicals and petroleum products to China, India, and other

markets reportedly brought in some US$20 billion in 2020, twice the amount it earned from crude oil.

Now, an OCCRP investigation — based on shipping documents, Indian court files, an analysis of ship-tracking data, and interviews with industry executives who have done business with Petrochem and its proxy companies — has uncovered evidence that Mehta’s conglomerate participated in this booming trade, and that false paperwork was used to conceal its role.

Neither India nor the United Arab Emirates ban trade with Iran, meaning that Mehta’s dealings do not violate sanctions in either of the countries where his companies are registered. But misdeclaring the origin of cargo violates customs regulations and laws in India, the U.S., the U.K., and other countries.

The revelations could also affect the companies’ access to the U.S. banking system and the financial institutions that form the linchpin of international commerce. In December 2020, the U.S. sanctioned four other UAE and China-based companies for supporting the sale of Iranian petrochemicals, which it called “an important revenue source for the Iranian regime, generating wealth for its corrupt leaders and financing a range of nefarious activities.”

Petrochem’s involvement in the trade came to the attention of Indian authorities in January 2020, when Mumbai customs officials, acting on a tip, apprehended a vessel leased by Petrochem Middle East India and other companies linked to Mehta. Documents related to the seizure, which was not reported in Indian or international media, show the ship’s operators had concealed the real origin of its cargo: Iran.

This sensitive part of Mehta’s business has been masked from public view, and from the authorities, by a network of proxy companies, false paperwork, and the disabling of transponders used to track the tankers.

Proxy Companies

OCCRP has found links between Mehta’s Petrochem and four companies that have been used to disguise shipments of Iranian petrochemicals.

Metron Middle East FZE (UAE)

• The Indian government in 2017 declared Petrochem and Metron “sister concerns” in findings related to a customs tariff violation case. Corporate records don’t show a formal link between the two companies, but two industry sources who have done business with the companies say they are both overseen by Mehta, working through Nazan Nobakht, director of chartering and logistics at Petrochem Middle East. There are several other links between Petrochem and Metron:

  • Harshadkumar Upadhyay, Metron’s managing director, was the manager for bulk operations of the Dubai branch of Petrochem from 2006 to 2014, when he formed Metron.

  • Metron’s website was registered by Petrochem’s accounts manager. Both companies have offices on different floors of the same building in Dubai.

  • Business information provider Sayari lists several telephone numbers for Metron, including two that are associated with current Petrochem employees. Calls to those numbers, and another listed on Metron’s website, went unanswered.

Kriscon DMCC (UAE)

• Upadhyay is also the director of Kriscon and holds shares in the company. In addition, a woman listed as a sales manager in a company brochure identifies herself as a current Petrochem employee in her LinkedIn profile.

Asia Bright Inc. Ltd. (Hong Kong)

• Upadhyay is the director of this company.

Indisol Marketing Private Limited (India)

• Indisol was founded by Niti Umesh Bhatt, a former director of Petrochem Middle East India, just 14 days after he left Petrochem in July 2018.

The network of proxies has made it almost impossible to determine the full extent of Petrochem’s involvement in Iranian petrochemicals. But the shipment apprehended in Mumbai fits a larger pattern: Ship tracking data shows that two other vessels leased by companies with ties to Mehta’s business empire showed a similar pattern of movements, including disabling their transponders near Iran before turning them back on in international waters.

Neither Mehta, his secretary, nor a Petrochem human resources official responded to multiple calls, letters, emails, or messages through social media accounts requesting comment for this article.

_{Petrochemical plant storage tanks. (Credit: Kevpix/Alamy Stock Photo)}

The Good Life

Yogesh Mehta — sometimes known as “Yogi” — presents himself as a modern chief executive, often sporting gray suits and bright ties while serving up inspirational business aphorisms.

“Dreams have to become reality, and the way to make dreams a reality is the endeavor, the enterprise, and the real vision you have,” he said in one interview. “Entrepreneurs are born,” he said in another, “and if you aren’t, then you can never become one.”

Now 62, the Mumbai native often recounts how he came up working at his father’s chemical business after earning a degree in chemistry.

After a series of business failures, he fell into debt and moved to Dubai in 1990 to try for a fresh start. There, he established a small chemical distribution company with another Indian expatriate. In 1995, Mehta broke away and started a new venture, Petrochem.

The business made him a wealthy man. By 2011, Mehta had accumulated nine luxury cars and a summer mansion in London, according to a report that year in Arabian Business. A few years later, he reportedly spent 14 million British pounds (around $21 million at the time) on a three-day celebration for his son’s wedding in Florence, featuring an 1,800- member cast and crew including Indian dancers, Italian sopranos, mimes, and fire throwers.

His family’s villa on Dubai’s “Millionaire’s Row” includes a nightclub, and he has reportedly become close with Bollywood celebrities, including superstar actor and producer Amitabh Bachchan. He is also an enthusiastic wine collector.

“Money is a very important grease to the machinery of a good life,” Mehta told Arabian Business. “Without the good life, why are we even living? We might as well be robotic animals.”

His chemical empire continued to grow. In 2018, Mehta’s business partner decided to sell his Petrochem stake, giving Mehta and his son, Rohan, control of the business.

Today, Petrochem claims to be one of the world’s largest chemical traders, and the top chemical distributor in the Middle East and Africa combined, with operations in over 80 countries and offices in the UAE, India, Singapore, Taiwan, and China. The concern reported $1.1 billion in revenues in 2017, and Mehta has said that turnover had reached $1.5 billion in 2019.

The following year, a bust at Mumbai’s port would give the first glimpse into one previously unknown aspect of his business’s operations.

Bust of the Chem Trader

When the Marshall Islands-registered MT Chem Trader docked in Mumbai on January 25, 2020, customs officials were waiting.

According to its official papers, issued by a UAE-based marine service provider called Atlantic Global Shipping, the small tanker had been on a circuitous and counterintuitive journey over the previous seven days.

The bills of lading showed that the ship had carried two petrochemicals — toluene, which is commonly used to make paint, and mixed xylene, an industrial solvent — from the Indian port of Mundra to the Emirati port of Jebel Ali. It had then carried different loads of the same two chemicals back to India, this time to Mumbai.

Apart from the exchange’s circular nature, another aspect should have raised eyebrows: India is highly dependent on toluene imports, meaning that exporting significant volumes to the UAE from there would make little commercial sense.

An industry insider with direct knowledge of Petrochem operations told Mumbai customs officials that the route described in the Chem Trader’s documents was fictitious. He reported that the shipment it had just brought to Mumbai had originated not in Jebel Ali, but in the Iranian port of Bandar-e Imam Khomeini, to be delivered to the UAE, China, and India.

The Mumbai officials seized and offloaded the shipment. According to documents from the bust obtained by OCCRP, the ship’s captain admitted under questioning that the paperwork was false and the chemicals had been loaded in Iran. The captain also said he had been instructed to lie. Seizure documents do not say if he identified who gave him those instructions.

The false documents do indicate who was behind the ship’s journey: They show that one of the fraudulent orders it carried had been commissioned by an Indian branch of Petrochem for delivery to its Emirati branch. Five other companies were also involved as shippers and receivers, at least four of which are Petrochem proxies or associates.

Documents obtained by OCCRP and authenticated by a senior Indian customs official show the ship’s real journey to Iran.

The Iran-issued documents showed that the Chem Trader had picked up its cargo in the Iranian port of Bandar-e Imam Khomeini. Unusually, neither document notes the “consignee” or “notify address” — that is, those who are accepting and receiving the cargo.

A bill of lading issued in Iran on January 12, 2020, showed that the Chem Trader picked up a cargo of 5,503 metric tons of mixed xylene from Iran’s Bandar-e Imam Khomeini port, headed for China.

A second bill of lading, dated January 14, shows about 5,000 metric tons of toluene were loaded at the same Iranian port and headed to India.

Chem Trader was soon released. It was not clear how the case was settled, but a customs official said that similar cases are usually resolved out of court through the payment of a fine. The ship has since been renamed several times and is still sailing.

The seizure of the Chem Trader’s cargo represented just a sliver of Iran’s annual petrochemical exports, but it is the only time Petrochem has been caught moving Iranian goods. It also provided a rare glimpse into how such operations are structured.

_{An industrial ship at Iran’s Bandar-e Imam Khomeini port. (Credit: UPI/Maryam Rahmanian / Alamy Stock Photo)}

A Circular Trade

Satellite tracking data gives more insight into Chem Trader’s movements.

Data obtained from MarineTraffic, a real-time shipping tracker, shows Chem Trader left the Indian port of Mundra on January 7, and then apparently disabled its automatic identification system in the Arabian Sea on the following day.

According to its Iranian documents, the ship loaded a cargo of petrochemicals in Bandar-e Imam Khomeini on January 14. By the time it apparently turned on its tracker the following day, it was approaching the Emirati port of Jebel Ali. Once it arrived, additional documents were issued claiming that it had loaded its cargo there.

Based on the volume of cargo seized by Mumbai authorities, the ship appears in fact to have unloaded part of the Iranian cargo in the UAE, which has a domestic petrochemical market and is also a redistribution hub. It then set sail for Mumbai with its remaining Iranian petrochemicals, where it was apprehended by customs authorities on January 25.

Analysis of ship tracking data from two other vessels hired by the proxy companies linked to Mehta — the MT Patriotic and the MT Taihua Glory — shows that they followed a similar pattern of movements. In both cases, the ships arrived in the UAE before disappearing from AIS screens for multiple days near Iran.

In the case of the Patriotic, the tracking data shows that it was in or around the Emirati ports of Fujairah en route to Al Jubail before disappearing on January 20. It reappeared briefly two days later, displaying what appear to be false coordinates showing it to be near Russia, before vanishing for another 15 hours, reappearing near the UAE, and finally heading to India on January 29.

_{A map showing the movements of the Patriotic, which disappeared from tracking data on January 20. (Credit: Edin Pašović/OCCRP)}

The Taihua Glory, leased by the Dubai-based Kriscon, showed a similar pattern, departing India on October 9, anchoring in Dubai, and then disappearing for ten days. It reappeared on October 23 near the Gulf of Oman before heading back to India. OCCRP obtained a bill of lading that shows Taihua Glory, like the Chem Trader, was secretly loaded in Iran at the same port as the Chem Trader with roughly 2,000 metric tons of caustic soda on October 21, just two days before it reappeared.

_{A map showing the movements of the Taihua Glory, which disappeared from tracking systems for ten days before reappearing near the Gulf of Oman. Shipping documents show it was secretly loaded in Iran. (Credit: Edin Pašović/OCCRP)}

_{Credit: OCCRP Customs document showing Taihua Glory was loaded in Iran.}

Jim Curtis, a retired U.S. Navy officer with experience in maritime surveillance, told OCCRP the ships’ movements suggested that they were being used to evade sanctions.

“Based on my observations during at-sea operations between 2004 and 2015, the behavior of these ships fits the profile of ships that are purposely busting sanctions in that area and conducting unsanctioned trade,’’ Curtis said in an email.

Irene Kenyon, a former intelligence officer at the U.S. Treasury Department and now director of risk intelligence at the consultancy FiveBy Solutions, agreed that Petrochem appeared to be evading sanctions.

“This does not look great,” she said. “At best, its leadership does not know what its employees are doing and is completely unaware of these violations, and that’s not a great look.”

In March, another piece of news suggested that further scrutiny may be on the way: The Financial Action Task Force, a global financial crime watchdog, said it was adding the UAE to a list of jurisdictions subject to closer monitoring, known as its “grey” list.

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_{Originally published in Tempo on June 28, 2026. By Adil Al Hasan (Tempo); Anand Mangnale. https://magz.tempo.co/read/economy/44411/fake-cia-agent-infiltrated-prabowos-family}

THE journey that brought Niels Troost and Gaurav Srivastava to President Prabowo Subianto’s residence at the Garuda Yaksa estate in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java, went smoothly. Troost, a Dutch oil trader, still remembered the visit with his former business partner in mid-2022 to introduce himself to Prabowo, who was then Indonesia’s Defense Minister.

“It felt special because we were escorted by a special vehicle that helped us get through the traffic,” he told Tempo, recalling the trip in interviews conducted in January and February 2026.

During the drive to Hambalang, Srivastava told Troost that he frequently visited and stayed at the estate. He said Prabowo respected him because he had helped track down those responsible for the Bali bombings. He also claimed to have removed Prabowo’s name from the United States immigration blacklist after the Indonesian politician had spent 20 years barred from entering the US over alleged human rights violations committed while serving as Commander of the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) Special Forces Command during the New Order era.

Before arriving at the Garuda Yaksa compound, Srivastava told Troost that Prabowo had an unusual habit of allowing spider webs and insects to remain throughout the house. According to him, Prabowo believed spider webs should not be removed because they were part of nature and deserved respect.

_{Luhut Binsar Panjaitan (left), Joko Widodo, Gaurav Srivastava, and Prabowo Subianto at the Global Food Security Forum in Bali, November 2022. BPMI Setpres/Muchlis Jr.}

Troost recalled that residents around Hambalang waved at him and Srivastava shortly before they reached Prabowo’s residence. Upon arriving at Garuda Yaksa, he saw Prabowo’s staff warmly welcoming Srivastava as if greeting an old acquaintance. Srivastava embraced several staff members while asking about them and their families. Looking around the compound, Troost noticed numerous spider webs, just as Srivastava had described.

Troost was astonished to see a giant wooden eagle statue in one of the waiting rooms at Garuda Yaksa. According to Srivastava, the statue symbolized Prabowo’s admiration for the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Srivastava claimed that he had given the statue to Prabowo as a gift. The Indian-born American businessman also told Troost that he was a CIA agent.

But the partnership between the two men did not last long. After their meeting in Indonesia, Troost and Srivastava parted ways in May the following year. The split stemmed from allegations that Srivastava fabricated a series of stories to extort tens of millions of dollars from Troost’s company, Paramount Energy & Commodities.

Troost then filed a lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act against Srivastava in a California court on January 21, 2026, accusing him of fraud, extortion, and a smear campaign. He amended the lawsuit in June 2026.

Troost accused Srivastava of being a con artist who masqueraded as an unofficial operative for a US foreign intelligence agency. Srivastava came under increasing scrutiny as allegations emerged that he had committed fraud in multiple countries.

Over the past five months, beginning in February 2026, Tempo and an independent journalist interviewed more than a dozen sources in Indonesia and abroad to trace

Srivastava’s activities in Indonesia. The reporting team also examined documents, emails, photographs, court filings, and open-source materials.

During several visits to Indonesia, Troost became one of the eyewitnesses to how Srivastava gained access to the country’s top business figures and government officials.

•••

NIELS Troost first met Gaurav Srivastava when the Dutch businessman’s company faced the threat of Western sanctions for trading Russian oil to the United States. Srivastava told Troost that he could shield the company from those sanctions. He also introduced himself as a CIA non-official cover operative.

Recordings of conversations submitted as part of Troost’s court complaint showed Srivastava claiming that he served as a non-official operative alongside Elon Musk and Warren Buffett. “I can reach eight senators in a day... and the President in the White House,” he said to Troost in a recording made in May 2023. “This isn’t a game. This is serious,” he added.

According to four sources, Srivastava also posed as a CIA agent while in Indonesia. A number of Indonesian officials and businesspeople came to know him as an intelligence operative. Many of them believed his story and were deceived.

The sources said Srivastava’s claims were easy to accept because he was an exceptionally persuasive speaker. His close relationships with former North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark, White House officials, and Prabowo Subianto reinforced his credibility. “He spoke to Prabowo the way you would speak to a friend,” one source said. “In my view, they had a very close relationship.”

Srivastava’s relationship with Prabowo extended beyond private meetings. At the Global Food Security Forum in Bali in November 2022, Srivastava introduced Prabowo as a true champion and an envoy of global peace and unity. He also referred to him as his dearest friend.

_{Hashim Djojohadikusumo attends the Global Food Security Forum, which was also attended by Gaurav Srivastava (third from left), in Bali, 2022. Atlantic Council}

Prabowo responded by thanking him before joking, “I call him Mr. G because your last name is sometimes difficult to pronounce.” At the same event, Prabowo’s younger brother, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, also displayed gestures of respect toward Srivastava.

The relationship between Srivastava and Prabowo did not develop overnight. Based on information from several sources and Troost’s court documents, Srivastava arrived in Indonesia in mid-2020 aboard a Gulfstream jet from the United Kingdom.

Before Srivastava arrived in Indonesia, Sky Petroleum Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Karim Jobanputra asked one of his contacts in Indonesia to arrange a meeting between the American businessman and Prabowo at the Defense Ministry and deliver an invitation letter.

Karim did not respond to Tempo’s request for comment sent by email. Prabowo also did not respond to requests for comment regarding the contents of the invitation.

What is clear is that several months after receiving the letter from Srivastava, Prabowo traveled to Washington, D.C., in October 2020. The trip was significant for Prabowo as Defense Minister under President Joko Widodo, particularly after he had been barred from entering the United States for two decades.

In addition to meeting US Defense Secretary Mark Esper at the Pentagon to discuss Indonesia’s military modernization, Prabowo hosted a presentation for defense contractors at the St. Regis Hotel. The five-star hotel is located near the White House, the residence and workplace of the US president.

Two sources who attended the event said leading defense contractors presented their portfolios to Prabowo and his delegation, which included US diplomats and officials.

Throughout many of the sessions, Prabowo and Srivastava sat side by side. “After each contractor finished presenting its proposal, they immediately left the room. Then the doors opened again for the next presentation. The process repeated throughout the day,” one of the sources said.

Prabowo’s delegation and Srivastava also visited The Bombay Club, about a five-minute walk from the St. Regis Hotel. Their trip was briefly halted after they became caught in a

Black Lives Matter demonstration outside the White House protesting the police killing of George Floyd.

No agreements were signed during the event at the luxury hotel. But discussions over defense procurement continued a month later in a telephone conversation between Christopher Miller, Esper’s successor, and Prabowo in November 2020.

Several weeks later, Miller flew to Jakarta. On December 7, 2020, he met Prabowo at the Defense Ministry. Miller was accompanied by Kash Patel, now Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who was then serving as Miller’s Chief of Staff.

In addition, a photograph obtained by Tempo showed Prabowo, Miller, and Srivastava meeting at the Gerindra Party General Chair’s residence on Jalan Kertanegara in South Jakarta. Among the topics discussed at the meeting was the sale of US fighter jets to Indonesia.

State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi did not respond to Tempo’s interview request for Prabowo, which was sent via WhatsApp and email. In February and June 2026, Tempo also sent formal letters requesting an interview with Prabowo through the State Secretariat Ministry. As of publication, Prasetyo had not responded to those requests.

•••

LESS than two weeks after Christopher Miller’s visit to Indonesia, the Defense Ministry issued three letters—two letters of agreement and one letter of intent—on December 22 and 23, 2020. Signed by Defense Procurement Agency Chief Air Marshal Yusuf Jauhari, the letters were addressed to three companies owned by Gaurav Srivastava: Orbimo Corporation, Constentis Corporation, and Zegasus Corporation. Yusuf did not respond to Tempo’s messages or interview requests sent to his personal cellphone.

To Orbimo Corporation, the Defense Ministry expressed its intention to purchase 30 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. Another letter stated the ministry’s intent to buy 36 F-15EX fighter jets, along with spare parts, maintenance, and related support, from Zegasus Corporation. Meanwhile, the letter sent to Constentis Corporation outlined the ministry’s plan to build a joint operations command-and-control center.

All three letters ended with the same note: “This letter of agreement constitutes a binding obligation relating to the procurement referred to herein.” Each letter also listed Miller and Heidi Grant, Director of the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), as recipients of carbon copies.

Miller told Tempo that he did not receive copies of those letters until several years after they had been issued. The same was true of Heidi Grant’s agency, which oversees US defense sales to security partners and prospective allies.

Miller said the US Defense Department officials who visited Indonesia had no involvement in the issuance of the documents. “We also did not request them from Indonesia’s Defense Ministry, either officially or unofficially,” he said on Friday, June 5, 2026.

However, Miller confirmed that Srivastava attended the meetings in Jakarta, which included discussions on the sale of US fighter jets. He added that Srivastava used those meetings to create the impression that he possessed influence and privileged access in order to profit from them.

“My assessment, based on my brief interaction with him during the meeting you mentioned, is that he was simply a fraudster, an outsider who lingered around these kinds of interactions and tried to exploit the appearance of access and influence for his own financial gain,” Miller said. “He looked like an ordinary con man.”

_{President Prabowo Subianto with Wesley Clark (third from right) and Gaurav Srivastava (second from right) during a meeting in Washington, D.C., United States, October 20, 2022. Embassy of Indonesia in Washington}

Rico Sirait, Chief of the Defense Ministry’s Information Bureau, confirmed that the letters of intent existed. According to him, the documents were neither final decisions nor legally binding agreements. To date, he said, none of the ministry’s letters of intent with the three companies has resulted in an actual contract.

Rico claimed that all preliminary communications, including the issuance of letters of intent, were part of the routine exploratory process common in defense cooperation. “All of Indonesia’s defense cooperation and procurement processes are always carried out

carefully, in accordance with the principles of good governance and the applicable procedures and regulations,” he said on Monday, May 25, 2026.

Despite the ministry’s claim that its procurement process was handled carefully, Tempo’s review of documents related to the three companies suggested otherwise.

Orbimo and Zegasus were incorporated in the US state of Wyoming on the very same day the Defense Ministry issued its letters of intent. Given the 13-hour time difference between Jakarta and the United States, the companies were actually established only after the ministry had signed and issued the letters. Constentis, meanwhile, received its letter of intent to supply the joint operations command center just a few days after it was incorporated.

The three companies owned by Srivastava were little more than shell entities. Their corporate filings showed no revenue and no record of procuring sophisticated defense equipment. Moreover, by the time the letters of intent were issued, Srivastava already had a documented history of fraud and breach-of-contract disputes in court records.

Srivastava’s effort to secure contracts from the Defense Ministry appeared unstoppable. On July 7, 2021, Sky Petroleum Inc., a company listed in the United States, announced the launch of a joint venture with Srivastava called Unity Accipiter (UAC). Tempo’s investigation found that the company was actually incorporated as Unity Accipiter Corporation in Wyoming under the name of Sharon Srivastava, Srivastava’s wife.

Documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stated that UAC had received a “definitive purchase letter” from Indonesia’s Defense Ministry in March 2021 to supply refurbished UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. The agreement, valued at US$480 million, included five years of maintenance.

Specifically, the helicopters requested by the Defense Ministry would be equipped with new engines, glass cockpits, and advanced avionics systems, along with a five-year maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) program. The filing also stated that UAC would receive 85 percent of the profits, while Sastaro Limited, a Sky Petroleum subsidiary, would receive the remaining 15 percent.

In fact, Sastaro Limited had no experience maintaining defense equipment. The Sky Petroleum subsidiary was an oil and gas company.

The joint venture between Sky Petroleum CEO Karim Jobanputra and Srivastava was dissolved on February 1, 2023. The dissolution notice stated that the partnership ended by mutual agreement and that there had been no material business activity with Indonesia’s Defense Ministry.

Another finding from Tempo’s investigation showed that SEC filings identified UAC as a Delaware company. But Srivastava’s UAC was registered in Wyoming. A comprehensive

search of Delaware’s corporate registry found no company named Unity Accipiter Corporation.

A source familiar with the arrangement said the agreement involving UAC was separate from the letter of intent concerning Black Hawk helicopters that the Defense Ministry had sent to another of Srivastava’s companies in December 2020. Had the contract materialized, however, it would have generated substantial profits.

On August 10, 2022, the US government approved the potential sale of 36 F-15ID fighter jets—a customized version of the F-15EX designed for Indonesia—in a deal worth US$13.9 billion. Most of that money would have gone to Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer.

Even so, one of Srivastava’s business associates said Srivastava was thrilled by the development because it promised enormous financial rewards. “He wanted to see that deal completed. It would have been a major achievement,” the associate said.

While strengthening his business prospects in Indonesia, Srivastava also cultivated political influence in Washington, D.C. He donated more than US$1 million to Democratic Party leaders and candidates in 2022 and 2023. He also managed to be photographed with President Joe Biden and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The effort was intended to bolster his image as a man with extensive connections and influence in the United States.

Srivastava’s success in obtaining letters of intent in Indonesia did not end there. A photograph obtained by Tempo showed Srivastava, Prabowo Subianto, Yusuf Jauhari, and Dirgantara Indonesia CEO Gita Amperiawan standing before a white-and-gold marble table, with two pens and two sets of documents laid out for signing.

On July 22, 2022, Dirgantara Indonesia signed a general operation agreement with Srivastava’s UAC. The cooperation covered the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) of C-130 Hercules aircraft in a deal valued at US$150 million, or about Rp2.2 trillion at the exchange rate at the time.

Gita Amperiawan said the state-owned aerospace company later terminated its cooperation with UAC after the company failed the due diligence process. According to him, the agreement was only an exploratory one. Gita did not deny reports that UAC had serious problems, though he declined to elaborate on why the deal collapsed.

What is certain is that Dirgantara Indonesia ultimately assigned the Hercules MRO work to Garuda Maintenance Facility Aero Asia, a subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia. “We concluded that UAC was not strong enough. So we built synergies within the domestic ecosystem,” Gita said.

GMF AeroAsia’s Corporate Communications & CSR division stated that the company supported Dirgantara Indonesia in carrying out the Center Wing Box Replacement on one

C-130 aircraft. However, it said the support had no connection to any transfer of work from UAC. “There is no connection whatsoever,” GMF said in a written statement on Saturday, June 27, 2026.

•••

WHILE pursuing defense contracts with Indonesia’s Defense Ministry, Gaurav Srivastava also cultivated a business relationship with Hashim Djojohadikusumo, Prabowo Subianto’s younger brother. In August 2022, through Harvest Commodities SA—a commodities trading company owned by Niels Troost—Srivastava struck a deal with the founder of the Arsari Group to transport 50,000 metric tons of corn feed from Ukraine to Indonesia through Comexindo International.

The agreement between Srivastava and Hashim was witnessed by Ukraine’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Vasyl Hamianin. Srivastava reportedly also offered Hamianin a business opportunity. When contacted by Tempo on Thursday, April 2, 2026, Hamianin declined to comment, including on the legal troubles Srivastava is now facing. He said Srivastava was neither his friend nor his business associate. “Ask the people who gave you that information,” he said.

The relationship between Srivastava and Hashim continued. In November 2022, Srivastava arranged for a transfer of US$51 million from Paramount Energy and Commodities DMCC (PDMCC)—a company owned by Niels Troost in Dubai, United Arab Emirates—to the Arsari Group, claiming the funds would finance covert CIA operations and renewable energy investments. Srivastava and his team coordinated with Arsari executives to complete the transaction.

A month later, on December 2, PDMCC transferred US$51 million to Arsari Pradana Utama. In the company, which was established in December 2021, Hashim served as CEO and majority shareholder.

Transaction documents obtained by Tempo showed that Rp755 billion was deposited into Arsari Pradana Utama’s account at Bank Bukopin, while another Rp30.8 billion was transferred to an account at Bank Mandiri, both recorded as working capital. Bank Bukopin has since been renamed KB Bank.

Komala Sari, Head of Corporate Communications and Government Affairs at KB Bank Indonesia, declined to comment on the activity in Arsari Group’s accounts. She said KB Bank adheres to prudent banking principles and complies with all applicable regulations. “KB Bank is committed to protecting customer confidentiality and data security,” she said on Monday, April 20, 2026.

What is clear is that the transaction has now become one of the issues disputed by Troost, who alleges that Srivastava defrauded him. One week after the transfer, US$25 million was sent back to Srivastava to purchase a luxury home in the United States worth US$24.5 million.

WhatsApp messages and emails between Srivastava’s legal team and Maria Foley, an Arsari executive, showed both sides attempting to find ways to avoid raising suspicions among bank officials. Maria explicitly suggested describing the transfer as an equity investment to avoid banking regulations.

Srivastava’s legal team proposed sending the money directly to Birdsong Central LLC, one of Srivastava’s affiliated companies registered in Delaware, through promissory notes structured as two US$10 million loans and one US$5 million loan.

Maria rejected the proposal, saying bank officials would not approve it. Instead, she suggested routing the transfer through New Kapital Limited, a British Virgin Islands entity affiliated with the Arsari Group.

Before the transaction took place, Srivastava’s legal team asked New Kapital Limited to grant power of attorney to the law firm Karlin & Peebles, LLP Attorneys at Law. The arrangement was intended to make the transfer appear as the repayment of a loan still affiliated with the Arsari Group.

On December 28, 2022, Arsari Pradana Utama successfully transferred US$25 million to Karlin & Peebles through an Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA), routing the payment from Bank Mandiri to First Republic Bank with the notation “NKL Repayment.”

The money was then immediately transferred to Birdsong Central LLC to purchase a luxury residence for Srivastava at 14180 W. Sunset Blvd. in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Birdsong transferred ownership of the property to Srivastava through Aurora Point LLC on January 5, 2023. Aurora Point LLC was incorporated in Delaware on October 12, 2022, and is owned by the Srivastava family.

After completing the first transaction, Srivastava’s team sought to obtain the remaining US$26 million. From February through September 2023, the team repeatedly pressed Arsari, offering different justifications each time. The requests intensified after Troost dismissed Srivastava from PDMCC in May 2023.

In one exchange, Srivastava’s attorney asked Arsari to transfer funds as payment for consulting services that Srivastava allegedly provided to Hashim in 2018. The attorney also offered personal guarantees from Srivastava and Sharon as lenders, with Arsari designated as the borrower responsible for repaying the money.

Srivastava’s attorney also requested that the funds be transferred to Echo Grove LLC, another company affiliated with Srivastava. Maria sought clarification about the relationship between PDMCC and Echo Grove, while noting that any transfer would automatically reduce the outstanding debt created in December 2022.

Undeterred, Srivastava’s legal team drafted a novation agreement restructuring the debt. The document stated that Arsari’s US$51 million loan from PDMCC would be assigned to Cedar West Ventures LLC, another Srivastava-affiliated company. Under the proposal, the remaining US$26 million would be paid in monthly installments of US$2 million from September 30, 2023, through September 30, 2024.

Frustrated by what they saw as Arsari’s lack of response, Srivastava and former CIA Station Chief John Maguire, whom Srivastava had recruited, threatened to accuse Hashim and the Arsari Group of financing terrorism, an allegation they claimed could damage Prabowo’s electoral prospects in the 2024 presidential election. To this day, the fate of the remaining US$26 million held by the Arsari Group remains unknown.

Before Troost fired Srivastava, Paramount had hired a private investigator, Jonas Rey, who is also Director of Athena Intelligence, to investigate Srivastava’s background.

Rey found that Srivastava, now 33, had a history of fraud and forgery. He said he was puzzled by how Srivastava managed to convince former CIA officers and senior generals with fabricated stories about being an intelligence operative. “Then we saw the enormous political donations he had made to elected officials across the United States, and suddenly everything made sense. He bought access on a scale I had rarely seen,” Rey said.

A Paramount spokesperson, who requested anonymity, described Srivastava as a master con artist who should be held accountable for the losses he caused. Paramount also hopes the Arsari Group will return the remaining funds. “We believe Arsari’s management will fulfill its obligation to return the remaining stolen funds,” the spokesperson said.

After reviewing the evidence and documents, Kush Amin, an attorney specializing in anti- corruption and anti-money laundering, said Srivastava should be held accountable for committing fraud in Indonesia, particularly for using Troost’s company funds to purchase a home in California.

“If he committed the underlying criminal offense, then he must also be held responsible for laundering the proceeds of that fraud from Indonesia. If those funds are linked to the ownership of the California house, he should also be liable for laundering money into the United States,” said the former legal specialist at Transparency International.

Hashim Djojohadikusumo did not respond to an interview request sent to the Arsari Group’s office on February 19, 2026. Aryo Djojohadikusumo, Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Arsari Group, also declined to comment and referred Tempo to Ariseno Ridhwan, spokesperson for both the Arsari Group and Hashim. Ariseno did not respond to letters or messages sent to his personal mobile phone from February through the publication of this report.

When approached at the Environment Ministry on April 29, 2026, Hashim declined to comment on Arsari’s involvement in the case surrounding Srivastava. “I don’t want to discuss that,” he said.

Srivastava also did not respond to questions sent to the email address listed on his personal website or to two public relations firms that had previously represented him. On his YouTube podcast, Srivastava described Troost’s account as “a big lie.”

In comments to the Financial Times, Srivastava claimed he had never presented himself as a CIA agent and suggested that recordings held by Troost had been fabricated by foreign actors. He also denied reports that the US$25 million he received from Paramount’s loan to Arsari came from a company owned by Hashim.

Meanwhile, Ivan Yustiavandana, Head of Indonesia’s Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), said the agency was investigating the transaction together with its counterparts in other countries. According to Ivan, the PPATK reviews any matter that attracts public attention when suspicious activity has been flagged by the financial industry.

He said his team would submit its findings to law enforcement authorities if it uncovered evidence of money laundering in the transaction. “We are still waiting for a complete response from our counterparts overseas,” Ivan said on Tuesday, June 23, 2026. “We continue to coordinate with them,” he added.

With the legal case unfolding in California, Srivastava’s image as a CIA operative has begun to collapse. People have started distancing themselves from him. In the United States, former President Joe Biden returned donations from Srivastava after the story of the fake spy began to unravel.

As the Democratic Party distanced itself from him, Srivastava shifted toward the Republican Party, embracing the “America First” message championed by President Donald Trump. Since June 2025, he has appeared on conservative podcasts, delivered a speech at a political convention in Las Vegas, and posted a photograph of himself with Vice President James David Vance in June 2025.

Troost’s lawsuit in California, amended in June 2026, also revealed that Srivastava donated US$2 million to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the cultural institution in Washington, D.C., now managed by Trump. The lawsuit noted that the center was at one point renamed The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, a move that sparked controversy because it violated the institution’s governing rules.

Dirgantara Indonesia CEO Gita Amperiawan said he was relieved that the state-owned aerospace company did not proceed with its partnership with Srivastava’s company.

Defense industry sources in Indonesia said they were shocked when the alleged fraud came to light. Four Indonesian sources who knew Srivastava admitted they initially believed his claims of being a CIA officer, even though they also noticed numerous inconsistencies during their interactions with “Mr. G.”

Several of Srivastava’s business associates also said they felt they had been used to advance his personal interests.

What remains a mystery is the position of Prabowo Subianto and Hashim Djojohadikusumo. In the past, both appeared to believe many of Srivastava’s claims. As of the publication of this report, Tempo had not received a response from either of them.

Anand Mangnale, an independent journalist from India, was part of this investigation.

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_{Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto (Banner: Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu/Anadolu via AFP)}

_{Originally published in OCCRP on July 3, 2026. By Adil Al Hasan (Tempo), Anand Mangnale and Tom Allard (OCCRP). https://www.occrp.org/en/news/businessman-who-allegedly-posed-as-cia-agent-wooed-indonesian-president-and-his-brother}

A businessman who allegedly posed as a CIA agent cultivated a relationship with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto — and secured preliminary agreements from Indonesia’s government to purchase tens of billions of dollars worth of fighter jets and other equipment.

The businessman, Gaurav Srivastava, did not respond to requests for comment on his Indonesian activities. On his website, Srivastava stated that accusations that he pretended to be a CIA agent were “gross fabrications” spread by his former business partner, Niels Troost, who was sanctioned by the U.K., European Union and Switzerland for trading Russian oil.

The sanctions have since been lifted by the E.U. and Switzerland.

Civil lawsuits filed by Troost in California and the Southern District of New York include references to recorded phone calls he collected as evidence in which Srivastava allegedly claimed to work for the CIA.

Srivastava joined Prabowo, then defence minister, in high-level meetings in Washington D.C. and Jakarta in 2020 where military procurement was discussed. He received three “Letters of Intention to Purchase” the same year.

The letters, obtained by OCCRP’s Indonesian partner Tempo, spelled out plans for the Indonesian government to acquire fighter jets and other defence materiel. Srivastava secured another letter of intent and a memorandum of understanding for two other defense procurement arrangements in 2021 and 2022.

None of the agreements ultimately resulted in purchases by the Indonesian government.

A spokesperson for Indonesia’s Ministry of Defense, Rico Sirait, confirmed the existence of the preliminary agreements, but stressed they did not constitute a binding contract.

“The entire process of Indonesian defense cooperation and procurement is always carried out with utmost caution, prioritizing the principles of good governance, national interest, and compliance with applicable mechanisms and regulations,” he told Tempo.

Troost said in an email to reporters that Srivastava claimed that he visited and stayed frequently at Prabowo’s homes when he was Indonesia’s defense minister.

Prabowo did not answer multiple requests for comment.

_{Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (fourth from left), Gaurav Srivastava (sixth from left), and colleagues at the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, D.C., in October 2020. (Credit: Screenshot/Facebook/Indonesian Embassy in Washington, D.C.)}

Over the course of 2020 and 2022, companies owned by Srivastava secured five preliminary agreements from Indonesia’s Defense Ministry, and a state-owned defence company. Prabowo was photographed with Srivastava and the company’s chief executive at a signing ceremony. The agreement was later announced at a press conference with the CEO.

The proposed agreements covered 36 F-15 fighter jets, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, and C-130 transport planes. In addition, one of Srivastava’s companies received a letter of intent to supply Indonesia’s defense ministry with a joint operations command and control center.

In 2022, the U.S. government announced its approval for the potential sale of 36 F-15 fighter jets along with their spare parts, which would have been worth $13.9 billion in total.

Corporate records show the four companies controlled by Srivastava that secured the five agreements were shell companies with no experience in defence procurement. All have since been deregistered after failing to pay tax. The announcement from the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency did not mention these companies.

Srivastava also developed ties with leading Indonesian business figures, including Hashim Djojohadikusumo, Prabowo’s brother, who chairs the Arsari Group.

Troost’s legal complaint explains that he was convinced Srivastava was a well-connected CIA operative, and he transferred 50 percent of his company to him believing he could help the business. Srivastava then “orchestrated” a $51-million loan from their company to the Arsari Group, the complaint says.

Troost claims Srivastava told him the $51-million loan would help fund a covert U.S. government program. However, according to the complaint, Srivastava allegedly convinced Arsari Group to transfer almost half the loan to him, and then used it to buy a $25-million mansion in Los Angeles.

According to the legal complaint, Srivastava tried to convince the Arsari Group to transfer the remainder of the loan to him, but the company refused.

Indonesia’s money laundering authority told Tempo it is looking into the transaction, and if they find evidence of wrongdoing they will refer it to law enforcement.

Hashim did not respond to requests for comment.

Although Srivastava did not reply to requests for comment, he has accused Troost on his website of perpetrating “an aggressive, scortched-earth [sic] disinformation campaign,” which began with legal complaints in the U.S., Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

For his part, in his California civil case, Troost calls Srivastava a “brazen con man of remarkable skill.”

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