The District of Columbia was placed in a Swamp by design as part of the deal with James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, who supported Alexander Hamilton's plan to pay off the debts of the states in the Revenue Act of 1789. 

Madison and Jefferson were convinced that moving the capital from New York City to a swampy diamond between Maryland and Virginia would safeguard democracy.

They were right until air conditioning made Washington habitually year-round, and the billions laundered through the federal government during the New Deal and World War II made the District of Columbia a place where a connected guy could make a fortune.

One guy who seems to be doing well is Ankit Desai, a former Senate aide to Joseph R. Biden Jr. who was just hired by Niels Troost. 

Desai, who also represents TikTok, also worked for Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the late New Jersey Democrat.

This being a Swamp story means it gets complicated.

Troost is a Dutch oil trader whose company, Paramount Energy and Commodities Group, was one of the top traders of Russian oil. Paramount contracts with 180 tankers to move 18 million metric tons of crude oil annually. 

The bulk of his business is at the Russian Pacific port of Kozmino at the terminal port of the Eastern Siberian Pacific Ocean Pipeline.

After the G-7 capped the price of Russian oil at $60, Paramount shut down operations in Switzerland and opened up shop in the United Arab Emirates, which has no sanctions on Russian oil, let alone caps. 

Before the Russian 2022 military entry into Ukraine, more than 50 percent of Russian oil was brokered by Swiss traders. 

Speaking at the Atlantic Council’s “Farm to Fork” Food Security Forum, held in Bali, Indonesia, Nov. 12, 2022, Troost presented himself as a man nearly forced to trade in oil so he could feed starving children and prevent civil wars.

“We see a clear correlation between energy prices and food prices,” he said. “We also see a clear correlation between increasing food prices and shortages of food and how that leads to uprisings and destabilization of our economies and our democracies.

The Dutchman says all the right things. He told Ghana News: “If a child in Africa does not have a meal a day, it makes me miss sleep every night.”

However, the oil trader’s world changed Feb. 22, when the Baron of Chipping Norton, British Foreign Minister David Cameron, sanctioned the Dutchman, along with 49 other individuals and entities.

These sanctions were timed to coincide with Cameron’s trip to the U.S. 

“These new sanctions also target key sources of Russian revenue, clamping down on metals, diamonds, and energy trade, and cutting off funding for Putin’s illegal war from every angle,” the baron and former prime minister said. 

In the report accompanying the sanctions, it stated:

Oil trader Niels Troost and his company Paramount Energy & Commodities S.A. Troost facilitates the unfettered trade of Russian oil outside the reach of U.K. and G7 sanctions, including through UAE-based Paramount Energy & Commodities DMCC, which the U.K. designated in November 2023.

Cameron sanctioned Troost Feb. 22. Troost hired Desai to advise him at $100,000 per month Feb. 26. 

Then, it gets strange. 

Desai is also involved with ABI Associates, along with political consultant James Carville and John Anzalone, Biden’s pollster.

He is also on the executive council of the Atlantic Council, which sponsored the 2022 "Farm to Fork" conference in Bali, where Troost spoke about how oil sanctions contribute to hunger. 

Also speaking at the 2022 “Farm to Fork” was Gaurav Srivastava, a significant donor to the Atlantic Council—until recently, when the organization severed all ties.

Srivastava also gave $50,000 to Biden's campaign and $290,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, among other Democratic candidates and committees.

Throw into the mix that Whale Hunting reported that Srivastava, who may have represented himself as a CIA agent, tried to shake down Troost into handing over half his company in exchange for protection from the U.S. government—and the FBI has the tape.

Poor Mr. Troost, who only wanted to sell Russian oil above G-7 caps to feed the children and stave off war and instability.

What makes this a true Swamp Story is that after dealing with the fake spy, he decided to go legit in the true Washington fashion by hiring a Biden-connected lobbyist at $1.2 million per annum.