Trafigura won its London lawsuit against Indian businessman Prateek Gupta over fake nickel cargoes on Friday, with London’s High Court ruling in favor of the commodities trader.
Geneva-based Trafigura alleged Gupta was the mastermind of a fraudulent “Ponzi scheme” in which he and his companies agreed to provide high-quality 99.8% pure nickel but delivered low-value or even worthless materials instead.
Gupta accepted he did not deliver high-grade nickel cargoes but says Trafigura staff devised the scheme, something Trafigura’s former head nickel trader Sokratis Oikonomou denied when giving evidence in November.
Judge Pushpinder Saini ruled that