In a two-part exposé on the podcast Targeted, host Zach Abramowitz delves into the unraveling of commodities investor Gaurav Srivastava’s professional and personal life—charting a descent not into legal trouble, but into the chaotic digital battleground of reputation destruction.
The episodes, titled I Was a Liability and They Turned Their Backs on Us, present a first-person narrative of how a failed energy partnership escalated into a sprawling disinformation campaign. Srivastava, once a low-profile figure in global commodities, recounts how a business venture turned into a life-altering conflict that played out across blogs, Wikipedia, and eventually, the pages of The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times.
A Deal, Then Discord
Srivastava’s account begins in 2022 with what appeared to be a promising opportunity: a restructuring of a commodities group trying to pivot toward commodities markets in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa—territories where Srivastava had business ties.
Srivastava agreed to a $50,000 buy-in for a 50% stake in the company. But as he tells it, his access to company finances and operations was blocked from the start. “I had no bank account information. I didn’t even have an email address with the company,” he says during the podcast.
What followed, according to Gaurav Srivastava, was a troubling audit. The company’s books, he alleges, revealed that his business partner, sanctioned oil trader Niels Troost, had siphoned millions via related entities and continued illicit trades in sanctioned Russian oil—despite public statements to the contrary.
Beyond the Courtroom
What might have ended in a protracted legal fight instead bled into the public domain. Gaurav Srivastava asserts that his business partner launched an aggressive media campaign—targeting him not in court, but across a network of obscure online publications.
“Within days, letters went out to everyone I knew—business contacts, friends, even political allies,” Srivastava notes. The narrative presented in these emails and stories was jarring and he was depicted as a con man.
The accusation echoed earlier claims Niels Troost had reportedly made about other associates. In a memo read aloud on Targeted, he described a previous business partner as a supposed CIA operative. That detail would prove critical, as Srivastava came to believe he was being framed with a recycled narrative.
Manufactured Reality
The podcast investigates how reputational damage can be constructed with alarming ease. Srivastava’s name began to appear in little-known outlets from India and Pakistan—publications with a record of running “pay-to-play” content, according to Abramowitz. From there, the story snowballed. A former Wall Street Journal writer picked it up on a blog. Then came mentions in the Journal and the Financial Times, bringing global legitimacy to the allegations.
Abramowitz interviews Victoria Kataoka, managing director of the Arkin Group, a New York-based intelligence firm retained by Srivastava. She describes a methodical effort to “set the cognitive bias” against him, leveraging repetition and selective sourcing. “It is extraordinarily well-resourced and terrifying,” Kataoka says of the campaign.
A separate investigation into Wikipedia also uncovered troubling findings. A page titled “Gaurav Srivastava scandal” appeared just weeks before mainstream articles were published. According to internal Wikipedia correspondence cited in the podcast, the page was flagged and removed for being a clear “attack page.” A senior editor later confirmed that sock puppet accounts—fake identities used to manipulate consensus—were likely involved.
One editor even allegedly demanded $40,000 in cryptocurrency to agree to an interview about his role.
The Personal Toll
While the podcast unpacks complex questions around media manipulation, AI deepfakes, and regulatory vulnerabilities, its emotional anchor is Srivastava’s personal suffering.
He recounts how parents at his children’s school began distancing themselves. “Every parent in the school turned their back on us,” he says, describing a painful moment during chapel service. One parent even warned that no child would attend their son’s birthday party. His banks closed his accounts. Social and professional isolation followed.
“I felt like I had brought this on my children,” Gaurav Srivastava says, his voice shaking. “I was in a very dark place.”
Abramowitz doesn’t shy from this emotional territory. He compares Srivastava’s experience to quicksand: “The harder you thrash, the faster you sink.” The podcast touches on the broader psychological impact of such campaigns. Kataoka warns that the isolation induced by reputational ruin can lead victims to consider self-harm. Srivastava, too, admits to near-breaking points.
The Role of Journalism
Throughout both episodes, Targeted asks hard questions about the role of mainstream media. Neither The Wall Street Journal nor The Financial Times responded to the statements made in the podcast. It highlights a vulnerability in modern reporting: the ease with which disinformation—carefully layered across blogs, bots, and backchannels—can seep into the editorial pipeline.
Kataoka suggests the outlets were not entirely to blame, as they were fed a compelling narrative of a “very shiny, fake spy story.” Yet the ultimate result, she says, was a skewed public perception—one that even Wikipedia readers struggled to disentangle.
A Cautionary Tale
Srivastava’s story is not over. Litigation is ongoing, and as Targeted prepares future episodes, questions linger: Who benefits from the fallout? How do platforms, from Wikipedia to major media outlets, vet narratives under pressure? And can reputations ever be truly restored in the age of algorithmic smear?
For now, Targeted offers a layered, if still developing, account of how power and perception collide. As Srivastava puts it, “I want my life back.” Whether truth alone can provide that remains to be seen.
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From Business Deal to Digital Inferno: the Attack on Gaurav Srivastava Unfolds on Targeted