Gunvor’s Buccaneering Founder Hands Reins to American Oil Trader

Torbjörn Törnqvist spent three decades building Gunvor Group into one of the world’s largest energy traders — from early days exporting fuel from post-Soviet Russia, to today’s sprawling global business that trades enough oil every day to supply the UK and France combined.

On Monday, the 72-year-old Swede announced an abrupt departure from the company he cofounded, in a dramatic move to contain the fallout after the US Treasury Department called Gunvor “the Kremlin’s puppet” — an allegation that was made without presenting evidence, but which evoked longstanding questions about the trader’s past ties to Moscow, despite its repeated denials.