Trading with Paramount DMCC: flagrantly evading sanctions regimes/the price cap through opaque ownership and the use of “ghost” vessels.
As Russian troops amassed on the border and subsequently invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Troost moved his trading activities from Paramount SA Switzerland to Paramount DMCC in the UAE to circumvent growing sanctions regimes and later the European price cap on Russian oil. [1]
Paramount’s primary business both before and after the invasion (and before and after the activities’ shift from SA to DMCC) was the marketing of “malachi" volumes (small volumes from independent Russian producers) from Russia to Chinese buyers. [2] Throughout that time, though, there are recorded transactions with larger producers and Russian state-owned entities too.
What is apparent from the ledger is that rather than sunsetting his Russian oil trade, Troost was ramping it up. In 2019, Reuters reported that Tenergy and then Paramount were handling 3-4 tankers a month. According to Public Eye, in early 2022, Paramount SA loaded 16 tankers in the months that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “making it the 4th biggest buyer.” Paramount DMCC acknowledged to the FT that it carried at least 12 tankers in 2022. However, according to the ledger and open source reporting, Paramount was delivering at least 9-10 vessels a month and did a total of AED 21,968,340,784.22 or $5 Billion of trading in 2022, yielding about $1.8B in profit for the company.
In the months that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Paramount SA was a significant exporter of Russian crude. According to Public Eye reporting:
“[W]hen the Russian army was already positioned on the Ukrainian border and during the invasion, this trading company, registered in Geneva in 2017 and virtually unheard of, obtained a total of 11.7 million barrels of oil, loaded aboard 16 tankers at the port of Kozmino in the Russian Far East, near Vladivostok. As a result, Paramount Energy is ranked the fourth biggest buyer of Russian crude, behind the giants Litasco, Trafigura and Vitol.”[3]
“In March 2023, Paramount SA and Paramount DMCC explained to the Financial Times that the two entities were operated and managed “totally independently” and that Troost had “no management or direct shareholding interest in the company in Dubai”. However, in February 2022, both companies signed a Nominee Agreement, which seems to say the opposite. The document, of which we have a copy, states that Paramount’s Dubai branch is a subsidiary of the Geneva-based company, and that the nominee director in Dubai– at the time a Swiss citizen – “will act upon the instructions of the Shareholder [Editor’s note: Paramount in Geneva] and sign such documents and make such payments as the Shareholder may request from time to time in relation to all business activities of the Company [Paramount in Dubai].””[4]
According to the November 2022 board resolution by Paramount SA that nominee agreement ended. However, Troost still stood to profit after already laying the groundwork to move his business to DMCC. Furthermore, contemporaneous emails and litigation filings in the UAE show that Troost was involved in every aspect of the running of Paramount DMCC – from lining up its banking facilities to increasing its trade volumes.
Through complex corporate structuring, Troost sought to circumvent Western sanctions and the price cap on Russian oil.
Per the FT, Paramount DMCC acknowledged involvement in at least 12 ESPO crude shipments after the price cap went into effect (December 2022). The seven vessels used for these shipments were registered in China, India, and the Marshall Islands, none of which participated in the price cap. Five of the vessels did not carry Western insurance policies, probably to trade above the price cap. Two of the ships, the Nichole and the Yasa Golden Dardanelles, did have protection and indemnity insurance from Western providers at the time of the voyages, respectively the American Club and Britannia P&I.
However, given the transfer of all activity from Paramount SA to Paramount DMCC as well as the wind-down of supply from Concept Oil to Paramount SA and the wind-up of supply from Demex to Paramount DMCC, it seems highly unlikely that Troost was unaware of Paramount DMCC’s activities. Indeed, according to first-hand accounts and Paramount emails, Troost maintained command and control of his trading activity conducting the trades for Paramount DMCC from his phone while in Switzerland.[5]
Troost himself acknowledges that his oil trading business was built primarily on his own relationships and personal stewardship:
“For the next two months, Troost worked day and night, often alone, trying to understand the rapidly growing restrictions on doing business with Russia. Unlike its much larger rivals, which employed numerous regulatory specialists, Paramount’s staff numbered only 17. It was a highly profitable but simple business, wholly dependent on Troost’s personal relationships.”[6]
“Troost enthusiastically tells about 'a gentlemen's business' in which relationships are the key to a 'handshake deal'.”[7]
In addition, in the Paramount DMCC annual accounts dated October 2023, there is mention that the company is continuing to trade in Russian oil. This statement contradicts his official line that they had ceased trading in August 2023, as reported in the FT:
“A spokesperson for Troost declined to comment on the contract with Desai and said that Troost no longer traded Russian oil. ‘After Paramount DMCC ceased marketing Russian oil in August 2023, Niels Troost has had no involvement in the Russian oil market whatsoever, directly, indirectly or through business interests.’”[8]
[1] The Excellent Russian Connections of a Small Geneva Trader, PublicEye, Apr. 5, 2022, https://www.publiceye.ch/en/topics/ukraine/commodity-trading-with-russia/the-excellent-russian-connections-of-a-small-geneva-trader; Two Companies, One Trade: The Switch That Keeps Putin's Oil Flowing, FT, Mar. 20, 2023,
https://www.ft.com/content/c99e8c04-ec5a-4e84-bae3-19fda48c661f; Little-Known Commodity Traders Help Russia Sell Oil, WSJ, May 27, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/little-known-commodity-traders-help-russia-sell-oil-11653643583; The Price Ain’t Right, Global Witness, Mar. 20, 2023, https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/the-price-aint-right/; G7 Price Cap Compliance Remains Murky, Energy Intelligence, Dec. 29, 2022, https://www.energyintel.com/00000185-5e5d-dc6e-afc7-5edff9550000; Switzerland Questions Oil Trader Over Sidestep Of Russian Sanctions, FT, July 4, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/ddbd705a-3744-45ef-a154-27d7f7be7e7f
[2] According to Public Eye, “In January 2019, Reuters announced that they had obtained eight shipments of “ESPO Blend crude” of 100,000 tonnes each at the port of Kozmino. All of which was purchased from “small producers” whose names do not appear in the dispatch. “ESPO Blend crude” designates a blending of crude oil that transits via the ESPO pipeline from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean where the port of Kozmino is located. This oil terminal is fully controlled by Transneft, the Russian state giant that owns all the pipelines in Russia. Then, in May 2019, a memo from Energy Intelligence Group noted that Tenergy had, in previous years, loaded “between three and four cargoes per month” from small producers, but “these volumes were recovered by Paramount”. Apparently, the two Geneva traders occupy a niche by sourcing from what are known as “malychi” (babies). This stands for around one hundred small crude oil producers in all four corners of the huge country: in Tatarstan, in the Samara region, in the Urals, in Ufa and in Western Siberia. “If you take them individually, their production is not enough to fill a tanker. You have to collect all these small volumes, tranship them in a pipeline, and then load a cargo ship. It's a real headache”, explains a Geneva trader who made his mark on the Russian market.” The Excellent Russian Connections of a Small Geneva Trader, PublicEye, Apr. 5, 2022, https://www.publiceye.ch/en/topics/ukraine/commodity-trading-with-russia/the-excellent-russian-connections-of-a-small-geneva-trader
[3] The Excellent Russian Connections of a Small Geneva Trader, PublicEye, Apr. 5, 2022,
[4] Switzerland Questions Oil Trader Over Sidestep Of Russian Sanctions, FT, July 4, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/ddbd705a-3744-45ef-a154-27d7f7be7e7f
[5] According to first hand accounts of people who worked with Francois Mauron.
[6] Niels Troost Has A Staggering Story To Tell About How He Got Sanctioned, FT, Dec. 14, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/eb3b3ea1-5aaa-4136-8f02-01b76fc8f405.
[7] Hoe een Nederalndse Olihandelaar op de EU-sanctielijst belandde en nu Zwitserland niet meer uit kan, Hell Financiele Dagblad, 8 Feb. 2025, https://fd.nl/bedrijfsleven/1544464/hoe-een-nederlandse-oliehandelaar-op-de-eu-sanctielijst-belandde-en-nu-zwitserland-niet-meer-uit-kan (translated).
[8] UK-Sanctioned Oil Trader Enlists Ex-Biden Aide To Thwart Potential US Sanctions, FT, Mar. 21, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/d3485a19-1238-4f48-af46-a2083913915b.