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Indian business tycoon Prateek Gupta has denied funnelling millions of dollars to his wife or sprawling group of companies, the missing cash that Trafigura alleges disappeared as part of a huge fraud scheme.
The commodities trading house claims to have lost around $600mn when it became the victim of a “systemic fraud” that it alleges was perpetrated by Gupta and companies he controlled. Trafigura is suing the businessman in London’s High Court.
Gupta claimed on Thursday that he had no knowledge of where the money had gone, telling the court: “I cannot recollect the exact breakdown.”
“So you just lost hundreds of millions of dollars and you can’t remember where it went, is that right?” said Nathan Pillow KC, a lawyer representing Trafigura.
“I don’t have an answer to that,” said Gupta in response, giving evidence via video link on the second day of his testimony as a defendant.
“You don’t, do you, because you’re lying about it,” said Pillow, to which Gupta responded: “I’m not lying.”
Gupta argues that Trafigura’s former star nickel trader, Socrates Economou, orchestrated the scheme, which involved the transportation of purported nickel shipments that in fact contained various low-value materials. Economou staunchly denies he had any knowledge of the arrangement at the time.
Gupta, based in Dubai, denied when questioned that he had given the money to his wife or to other senior officials in his group of companies.
In response to Pillow’s suggestion that he had been “robbing Peter to pay Paul”, by using the money from Trafigura to “pay off other creditors in your business empire”, Gupta said: “No, I don’t agree with that.”
Gupta said in his witness statement that his company, UD Group, had been facing depleted cash reserves in early 2021, when the arrangement was ongoing.
Gupta claimed in court on Thursday that “substantial” sums went towards shipping costs and interest payments, but could not otherwise outline where the money paid by Trafigura for purported nickel shipments had gone.
Giving evidence in the case this week, the businessman repeatedly claimed that he did not oversee the day-to-day operations of the arrangement.
The trial continues.