LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A London court is due to hold
a hearing on Friday about a $625 million global freezing order
imposed on Indian businessman Prateek Gupta and a web of firms
he controls.
Trafigura, which sought the order, said on Feb. 9 that it
had booked a $577 million charge relating to what it alleges is
"systematic fraud" by Gupta's companies over nickel cargoes.
A lawyer in Singapore representing Gupta and one of his
companies has previously declined to comment, saying his client
would respond in court.
Reuters emailed some of the companies involved, but did not
receive a response.
A High Court judge in London imposed a freezing order on
bank accounts and other assets tied to Gupta and seven
Gupta-controlled companies, including those in Britain,
Singapore, Malaysia and Switzerland, which was dated Feb. 8.
Trafigura had told the judge in a closed-door hearing that
some of the first containers inspected were found to contain
carbon steel, which is worth a fraction of the price of nickel.
It said in court papers it began to suspect in October last
year that around 25,000 tonnes of metal sold by Gupta's firms
may not be high-grade nickel, and began inspecting more than
1,000 shipping containers.
Trafigura ended up inspecting 156 out of 1,104 containers by
the time it filed court papers, none of which contained nickel.
(Reporting by Eric Onstad and Sam Tobin; Editing by Alexander
Smith)
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