It also casts more light on the business links between several companies that Trafigura alleges were connected to businessman Prateek Gupta and perpetrated a massive fraud against it.
Missouri-headquartered Kataman is a midsize U.S.-focused commodity trading house best known for its role in the aluminum market. But in August 2022, according to Kataman’s filings in a Singapore lawsuit, it entered into an agreement to buy 167 tons of LME-branded nickel for $3.3 million from New Alloys.
When Kataman tried to have the documents reissued, representatives of New Alloys and its freight forwarding agent Techies Logistics delayed that process, the legal filings allege. By mid-January New Alloys and Techies had stopped responding to emails and WhatsApp messages altogether, according to Kataman’s lawsuit.
Kataman and Techies did not respond to requests for comment made by email and phone. Techies filed a response in the Singapore case, saying that its role had been limited to organising storage and shipping for New Alloys and that it had never vouched for the cargo’s contents. Manoj Menon, the director of New Alloys, has previously denied all allegations of fraud in response to the Trafigura case.
The nickel trade appears to be part of a broader set of trades between Kataman and several companies, at least one of them directly connected to Gupta. Both TMT and Mine Craft are named as defendants in Trafigura’s case against Gupta; Trafigura alleges that both are controlled by Gupta, who denies he controls Mine Craft.
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Source: FinancialReview - 🏆 2. / 90 Read more »