Due to the international embargo on Russian oil as well as the systematic looting of grain in the occupied regions of southeastern Ukraine, trading in Russian raw materials is a particularly sensitive business. However, this does not prevent certain Swiss companies from continuing to deal with Russia. This is particularly the case of Harvest Group SA, an agricultural trader established in Switzerland for around ten years. Between May 2022 and July 2024, this company domiciled in Morges, in the canton of Vaud, purchased more than 90 cargoes of Russian grain. Harvest Group SA is led by a Kazakh judoka living on the shores of Lake Geneva. As shown our investigationits complex network of companies includes half a dozen other Swiss raw materials companies with less transparent shareholding. Public Eye discovered that alongside Almaz Alsenov, Dutch businessman Niels Troost, established in the City of Calvin for decades, was a shareholder until September 2023 in Harvest Commodities SA, the branch in Geneva of Harvest Group SA.
So far, Niels Troost, on which Public Eye has already investigatedwas mainly active in Russian oil trading. In 2023, the activities of his Geneva company Paramount Energy and Commodities SA and its subsidiary in Dubai attracted the attention of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), which referred the case to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. A preliminary investigation is underway into suspected violations of the Russian oil embargo. Due to these suspicions, Niels Troost and the two Swiss and Dubai entities of Paramount were placed under sanctions in the United Kingdom in early 2024.
It is unclear whether Niels Troost, by becoming a shareholder in Harvest Commodities SA, has really turned the page on Russian oil trading. Until recently, the Harvest Group SA website also listed trading in crude oil and refined products among its activities. But this mention has since been deleted. And until June 2024, the Geneva branch was administered by the same business advisor, based in the City of Calvin, as Paramount Energy & Commodities SA. In October, Harvest Commodities SA went into liquidation, while Harvest Group is still active.
If Switzerland intends to position itself as a trusted commodity trading center internationally, it must finally impose stricter due diligence obligations, as well as more transparency on the real economic beneficiaries of companies. The establishment ofa public register of beneficial ownerswhich will be discussed by the Council of States on December 18, is an essential measure to achieve this.
More information ici or from:
Agathe Duparc, raw materials and finance investigator, +33 7 71 22 34 13,[email protected]
Géraldine Viret, responsible for media, +41 78 768 56 92,[email protected]
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