Trafigura, Gupta lawyers trade blame over metals fraud as trial winds up

By Eric Onstad

LONDON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Commodity trader Trafigura told London’s High Court on Thursday that Indian businessman Prateek Gupta had woefully failed to show its employees knew of or took part in a $600 million metals fraud, as lawyers made closing arguments in a long-running case.

Gupta's lawyers countered that unusual trading practices indicated Trafigura staff devised the scheme at the heart of the dispute, which involved substituting cheap or worthless metals for high-value nickel.

Geneva-based Trafigura, which sued Gupta more than two years ago, has repeatedly insisted no employees knew of the fraud until cargo inspections in November 2022.

Gupta, who testified remotely from Dubai where he lives, alleged Trafigura employees created a complex series of transactions to inflate the group's standing in nickel trading.

"Mr Oikonomou and Mr Bhatia ensured that the trading continued in the face of uncommercial practices and red flags, leading to the conclusion that they must have been participants in the (fraudulent) arrangement," Gupta's lawyers said in written closing arguments.

Sokratis Oikonomou was head nickel trader and Harshdeep Bhatia was an Indian-based trader for Trafigura. Both no longer work for the company and have submitted affidavits that they did not know of or participate in the fraud.

Gupta also alleged staff from his firm and Trafigura worked together to lengthen voyage times to extend the period of credit offered by financing bank Citi and reduce the chances of inspections that would reveal the cargoes' true contents.

Citi has declined to comment on the case.

Ahead of the trial, Gupta’s team produced chat exchanges and emails with Trafigura staff, including discussions of “red flags”, which they said proved he was not acting alone.

Trafigura argued during the trial that Gupta had a history of fraudulent dealings and accused him of siphoning off funds from the alleged scheme to support his struggling businesses.

"Mr Gupta’s evidence was implausible, inconsistent - internally and with his own earlier accounts - incoherent in its own terms, and plainly incredible," Trafigura lawyers said in their written closing arguments.

"This approach... does not begin to fill the void of evidence that the (alleged arrangement) was ever agreed in the first place."

Gupta has been subject to a freezing order on his assets since February 2023, which he unsuccessfully sought to lift that December.