The Prateek Gupta nickel fraud against Trafigura Pte Ltd

analysisTPTE and Trafigura India sued Prateek Gupta and seven companies — UIL (Singapore), UIL Malaysia, TMT Metals AG, TMT Metals (UK), Spring Metal, Mine Craft and New Alloys Trading — in London on 8 February 2023 and obtained a worldwide freezing order. The companies had signed master contracts with TPTE between October 2021 and August 2022 and sold it 542 cargoes of purported nickel worth about US$3.3 billion; the claim concerned 107 cargoes for which TPTE paid about US$500 million. On 30 January 2026 the court found the fraud proved: the companies supplied low-value or worthless material, Mr Gupta controlled UD Trading Group and four of the companies and used the other three as fronts, and he is personally liable for around US$500 million. TPTE may rescind 91 trades and trace a net US$489.8 million in a second phase. The group had booked a USD 577 million charge for the fraud in 2023. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

response

Mr Gupta and four of the companies defended the claim on the basis of an 'Arrangement' which, they said, he had agreed with two Trafigura nickel traders at a meeting in Dubai on 5 June 2019: a scheme of false shipping documents under which Trafigura knowingly bought material that might not be nickel for later sale back under a repo financing structure. The judge found that there was no such Arrangement, only a scheme on its lines devised by Mr Gupta and hidden from Trafigura, and recorded that the two former Trafigura employees accused of taking part were wholly innocent of any wrongdoing. The group had said from the start that there was no evidence that anyone at Trafigura was involved or complicit.

outcome

Judgment for TPTE on its principal causes of action on 30 January 2026; tracing of the proprietary funds and Trafigura India's related claim are left to a second phase.

analysisTo reach assets in Dubai, the Trafigura companies obtained freezing orders in the courts of the Dubai International Financial Centre in April 2025 against Mr Gupta and his wife Ginni Gupta, whom an English court had already restrained as a person believed to hold assets for him; the DIFC Court of Appeal upheld the orders in September 2025. Onshore, the Dubai execution judge attached properties of her company Vision Investments, but rejected an application for her arrest, and in September 2026 the DIFC court continued the freezing order until February 2027 while holding that freezing orders cannot be enforced onshore through the DIFC as a conduit. ^{1 2 3}

qualification

Ginni Gupta is not a defendant to the fraud claim; the orders against her rest on the claimants' belief that she holds assets for her husband, and the record contains no finding of wrongdoing against her.

response

Ginni Gupta opposed the orders: she argued that the claimants had to show by solid evidence an objective risk that the Vision properties would be dissipated, that she had given the required notice before selling a Dubai villa and that the sale involved no dissipation, and that a freezing order, being an interim order and not final and executory, could not be enforced onshore as though she were a judgment debtor.

outcome

The DIFC freezing order stands until 1 February 2027; onshore attachment was obtained over properties of Vision Investments Ltd, while the application for Ginni Gupta's arrest was rejected and the court held the conduit route unavailable for onshore enforcement.

analysisHyphen Trading Limited, a UK commodity trader, claimed in Singapore a cargo of nickel briquettes in a Malaysian warehouse that TPTE and Trafigura India said belonged to Trafigura India under the true bills of lading; the bills Hyphen held had the same numbers but a different shipper. The High Court refused Hyphen's request to sell the cargo in September 2023, and the English judgment later records a confidential settlement with Hyphen, recoverable from the Gupta defendants. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6}

qualification

The amount of the settlement with Hyphen is confidential and is not in the record.

outcome

Hyphen's application for sale of the cargo was dismissed on 13 September 2023 with costs of S$14,000 to Trafigura India; the dispute was later settled.