{"id":120554,"date":"2025-05-27T16:03:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T00:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/27\/new-show-looks-at-people-targeted-by-powerful-institutions\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T16:03:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T00:03:25","slug":"new-show-looks-at-people-targeted-by-powerful-institutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/27\/new-show-looks-at-people-targeted-by-powerful-institutions\/","title":{"rendered":"New Show Looks At People Targeted By Powerful Institutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the current administration flirts with weaponizing the government under the guise of de-weaponizing the government<\/a>, consider how easy it is for powerful institutions to wreck havoc. There are a lot of ways for the powerful to hurt someone. Generally speaking, institutions constrain the damage they can cause to people who actually, you know, try to kidnap people<\/a>. But what happens when power jumps the guardrails?<\/p>\n

Targeted<\/a>, a new show hosted by occasional Above the Law columnist Zach Abramowitz, endeavors to tell the stories of people who end up on the wrong end of organs of power \u2014 whether law enforcement, regulators, or media. One two-part episode focused on Gaurav Srivastava, a business investor. When Srivastava\u2019s former business partner Niels Troost got sanctioned by the EU for trading in Russian oil, Troost claimed that he actually wound up his dealings before the war imposed controls. But he also claimed that Srivastava posed as a CIA operative promising special exceptions to the rules.<\/p>\n

Most sophisticated parties represented by sophisticated lawyers in an arms-length transaction don\u2019t make decisions based on promises that it\u2019s part of a covert spy operation, but whatever.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a crazy story though. Crazy enough to get picked up, first by a lot of fringe publications and then ending up in the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. Yet\u2026 despite the eagerness to fight the battle in the media and then use that to make his case to get his own sanctions lifted, Troost never took these allegations against Srivastava to court.<\/p>\n

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Above the Law even gets featured in the show, though our coverage differed from the other outlets. While they picked up on coverage from overseas content mills or credulously repeated Troost\u2019s out-of-court allegations, our article addressed an actually filed lawsuit<\/em> specifically alleging an undisclosed conflict between Baker Hostetler, representing Troost\u2019s company, and Srivastava. According to that suit, the partner on the matter had an unrelated business relationship with Srivastava. The docket suggests that case ended up going nowhere.<\/p>\n

However the deal between them went down, it seems like this should be put up or shut up time for the underlying allegations. If there\u2019s any actual evidence that this guy pretended to be a spy or otherwise misrepresented himself\u2026 file that<\/em> lawsuit.<\/p>\n

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\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post New Show Looks At People Targeted By Powerful Institutions<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the current administration flirts with weaponizing the government under the guise of de-weaponizing the government<\/a>, consider how easy it is for powerful institutions to wreck havoc. There are a lot of ways for the powerful to hurt someone. Generally speaking, institutions constrain the damage they can cause to people who actually, you know, try to kidnap people<\/a>. But what happens when power jumps the guardrails?<\/p>\n

Targeted<\/a>, a new show hosted by occasional Above the Law columnist Zach Abramowitz, endeavors to tell the stories of people who end up on the wrong end of organs of power \u2014 whether law enforcement, regulators, or media. One two-part episode focused on Gaurav Srivastava, a business investor. When Srivastava\u2019s former business partner Niels Troost got sanctioned by the EU for trading in Russian oil, Troost claimed that he actually wound up his dealings before the war imposed controls. But he also claimed that Srivastava posed as a CIA operative promising special exceptions to the rules.<\/p>\n

Most sophisticated parties represented by sophisticated lawyers in an arms-length transaction don\u2019t make decisions based on promises that it\u2019s part of a covert spy operation, but whatever.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a crazy story though. Crazy enough to get picked up, first by a lot of fringe publications and then ending up in the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. Yet\u2026 despite the eagerness to fight the battle in the media and then use that to make his case to get his own sanctions lifted, Troost never took these allegations against Srivastava to court.<\/p>\n