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The Gaurav Srivastava Scandal was a scam carried out by Indian businessman Gaurav Srivastava, who fraudulently misrepresented himself to businessmen and political figures in the United States and internationally as a non-official cover operative of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in order to obtain funds and shares in companies.[1][2][3][4] These activities have led to an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into Srivastava’s activity in the US, including his campaign donations, claims of being a federal officer and other financial affairs.[1]
The scam was carried out by Gaurav Kumar Srivastava, an Indian businessman who is the founder of the Gaurav and Sharon Srivastava Family Foundation and chairman of the Unity Resources Group.[4][5][6][2] Srivastava’s scam became known after a failed attempt to defraud a Dutch oil trader, Niels Troost, in 2022.[1][7] Srivastava then suggested that, if Troost made him a 50% partner in his business, his company, Paramount Energy and Commodities SA, would be given a special license to continue its trading activities with Russia.[7] In order to convince Troost of his background, Srivastava led him to believe that he was a non-official cover operative for the CIA, and that he had conducted missions on behalf of the US Government in Afghanistan and other conflict zones, with one resulting in him being kidnapped by ISIS in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008.[8]
The scam broke down in May 2023, nearly a year after it was initiated, after Troost terminated Paramount’s relationship with BakerHostetler, his company’s law firm, which had vouched for Srivastava, and rescinded Srivastava’s shares on the grounds of error and deceit.[7][8][9] BakerHostetler is now subject to a lawsuit accusing them of legal malpractice in vouching for Srivastava and for endorsing his false pedigree, and professional misconduct.[7]
In March 2024, the Joe Biden 2024 presidential campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) froze hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations from Gaurav Srivastava after he was accused of fraudulently pretending to be associated with the CIA.[2][10] In April 2023, Srivastava had donated funds to the then Biden Victory Fund (now the Harris Victory Fund), a Democrat political action committee (PAC), and listed himself as an “urban designer” working for infrastructure consulting firm AECOM.[11] In 2023, Srivastava had also made several donations totalling almost $290,000 to the DCCC as chairman of Unity Resources Group.[12] Campaign officials said the funds were placed in escrow following concerns about their source and legality.[2]
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bradley Hope at Project Brazen accused Gaurav Srivastava of abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) process in order to de-list articles from Google that exposed his activity.[13] Project Brazen had received a DMCA notice after the outlet published a detailed story about how Srivastava posed as an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency to perpetrate frauds against international businessmen.[14] Subsequent articles reporting on Srivastava’s political activity in Washington DC and history of frauds were also subject to DMCA takedown requests after backdated posts on fake blogs on Tumblr and other platforms were used to claim copyright infringement.[14] Tumblr and others subsequently took down the blogs after complaints from journalists.[14]
On the 29th of August 2024, the Wall Street Journal published a large exposé on the scam, which explained in details the various actions conducted by Gaurav Srivastava to scam Niels Troost.[15]
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