Trafigura accuses Gupta of weaving incoherent web to cover $600 million nickel fraud

By Eric Onstad

LONDON (Reuters) -Trafigura lawyers said Prateek Gupta's allegations that the group concocted a secret scheme to swap expensive nickel for low-value metals were full of inconsistencies, as the Indian businessman gave evidence in a long-running fraud case on Wednesday.

Switzerland-based commodity trader Trafigura sued Gupta over two years ago, alleging he was the mastermind of a scam in which he and his companies agreed to provide pure nickel but delivered steel or scrap instead.

Gupta has countered that staff at Trafigura themselves devised the scheme at the centre of the case, an allegation Trafigura has repeatedly denied.

Testifying for the first time, Gupta said he believed that the substitution scheme had the approval of top Trafigura executives.

"You are lying," Trafigura lawyer Nathan Pillow said in the London High Court trial. "Why would it need to be kept secret if it was approved at the highest levels?"

Gupta, testifying remotely from Dubai where he lives, replied that only a small group was to discuss how the scheme would operate.

Pillow also queried why Gupta said the material to be substituted should resemble nickel, but also proposed including stainless steel, which bore little likeness to nickel.

"The story you gave is incoherent and nonsensical," Pillow said.

"I was just following instructions (from Trafigura)," Gupta said.

"None of this happened, and you can't keep your story straight," Pillow said.

TRAFIGURA ALLEGES HISTORY OF FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY

Earlier, Trafigura lawyers accused Gupta of having had a history of fraudulent dealings before organising the alleged fraud with Trafigura.

Gupta acknowledged he was being investigated for fraud in India, but denied the allegations.

Pillow cited two other fraud cases involving Gupta's companies in which nickel was substituted for low-value metals, but Gupta said he was not aware that was taking place.

The other fraud cases involved commodity broker Sucden Financial Ltd and U.S. trading house Kataman Metals LLC.

"The reality is that dealing in fraudulent bills of lading is an expertise of yours," Pillow told Gupta.

Gupta is under investigation for bank fraud in India in connection with Indian company Ushdev International Ltd, part of Gupta's UD Group, he acknowledged.

Trafigura's first metals trades with Gupta in 2014 were with Ushdev, which later had financial difficulties, was declared bankrupt in 2018 and is currently being controlled by insolvency professionals.

'AGGRESSIVE' TRADING APPROACH

Gupta has countered that staff at Trafigura devised a secret scheme, saying he was asked in 2019 to sharply boost nickel trading under then head nickel trader Sokratis Oikonomou.

"Oikonomou was aggressive in his trading approach and outlook and... wanted to expand Trafigura's nickel trading operation to a position of dominance in the market," Gupta said in a court document.

Oikonomou has strongly denied he was involved in the fraud and said the increased trading volumes with Gupta were modest compared to Trafigura's overall nickel operations. Trafigura terminated Oikonomou's employment in January 2023.

According to Gupta, India-based Trafigura trader Harshdeep Bhatia said Trafigura aimed to ramp up trade to 50,000 metric tons of nickel a year, about triple the volume previously.

Bhatia, who no longer works for Trafigura, did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

That large quantity of pure nickel, worth about $625 million at the time, would be difficult to source and also prove problematic in terms of credit insurance limits, Gupta said.

(Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Jan Harvey)