The steel magnate, sued over $577 million worth of missing nickel, told freight inspectors he had a heart attack, the report said.

  • An Indian tycoon sued over a missing nickel shipment told inspectors he had a heart attack, the FT reported.
  • Trafigura claims many of Prateek Gupta’s shipments were nickel-free and are facing a $577 million loss.
  • According to the FT, Gupta proposed a repayment plan in a handwritten note and offered a wind farm as collateral.

The steel magnate, who is being sued over $577 million worth of missing nickel, told inspectors he suffered a heart attack two days before the shipment was due to be checked, according to a Financial Times report.

Commodity trading giant Trafigura has sued Pratik Gupta and related companies including TMT Metals and UIL Malaysia. He contends that some of the nickel shipments arranged with an Indian businessman did not actually contain the expensive metal, which has been called systematic fraud.

Court documents seen by the FT detail apparently chaotic events over the 10-day November period when Trafigura uncovered Gupta’s alleged multi-million dollar fraud.

The report said that on Nov. 9, Trafigura’s chief nickel trader Socratis Oikonomou arranged for physical inspections of shipments shipped by Gupta firms. The check came after a request from lender Citi, which provided Trafigura with an $850 million line of credit for its transactions.

Just two days before his scheduled checkup, Gupta sent a WhatsApp message to Oikonom telling him that he had suffered a heart attack, according to the FT. The businessman then allegedly tried to make a deal with a nickel dealer to delay an inspection in Rotterdam.

Oikonomo, however, continued his inspection. Trafigura stated that none of the containers in Rotterdam contained the nickel previously agreed upon in the orders, but instead contained carbon steel.

A full container of nickel, usually sold in bulk, can cost approximately $500,000. Carbon steel typically costs about 5% of the cost of the more expensive metal.

Trafigura believes there were about 1,100 shipping containers involved in its Gupta deals, but cannot say exactly what is inside them, the FT said. By the beginning of February, 156 of them had been tested, and none of them contained nickel yet – only carbon steel or other types of steel or iron.

During the negotiations after the Trafigura discoveries, Gupta is said to have tried other ways to drag things out. He offered Trafigura a wind farm and steel mill as collateral and offered a $200 million repayment plan in a handwritten note to Oikonomu at a meeting at Heathrow Airport.

A London court placed a $625 million asset freeze order on Gupta after Trafigura filed a fraud lawsuit. He told Reuters he intended to challenge the order.

Gupta did not immediately respond to an Insider request for comment sent via email to TMT Metals.

Content Source

News Press Ohio – Latest News:
Columbus Local News || Cleveland Local News || Ohio State News || National News || Money and Economy News || Entertainment News || Tech News || Environment News

Related Articles

Back to top button