A company that claimed $9.6 billion in annual revenue and moved more than 80 million metric tons of iron ore per year is now watching its business relationships unravel in real time. Radiant World, the Singapore-based trading house founded by Pinkesh Nahar, has seen some of the biggest names in commodities and banking walk away within weeks.

The unraveling began in late July 2026, when Vitol Group, Cargill, and Glencore, three of the world's most influential commodity trading firms, all stopped doing business with Radiant. The reason was allegations that the company had provided invalid invoices.

The dominoes fall fast

After the major traders stepped back, the banks followed. Deutsche Bank and KBC froze some accounts linked to Radiant World in August 2026, and credit lines were suspended.

Radiant's revenues roughly doubled from about $4.5 billion in 2023 to $9.6 billion in fiscal year 2025. The company built its business on strong trade finance relationships with numerous banks and close ties to major commodity miners and traders.

Mining giants Rio Tinto and Vale have both removed Radiant from their approved customer lists. Both rank among the world's largest iron ore producers, the very suppliers a trading house like Radiant depended on.

Singapore, one of Asia's biggest commodity trading hubs, has seen large trader collapses before, including oil trader Hin Leong in 2020 and palm oil trader Agritrade in 2023, both of which ended in court-supervised proceedings.

Banks count the cost

Intesa Sanpaolo, the Italian banking group, has provisioned for approximately €200 million of exposure to Radiant, although the bank said the loss would not significantly affect its 2026 profits. Jefferies' Point Bonita fund is also reviewing its exposure, which is below $300 million. Point Bonita is a credit-focused fund manager acquired by Jefferies, and its presence among the creditors shows the exposure extends beyond conventional bank balance sheets to credit funds.

Creditor claims against Radiant World's Singapore entity have more than doubled, increasing from 10 to 21 since early 2025. Mizuho filed for insolvency proceedings against Radiant World in late August 2026. Singapore Police are now investigating the allegations against the company. Staff layoffs have followed.

How trade finance works, and how it breaks

Companies like Radiant usually do not buy iron ore with their own cash. Instead, they use short-term bank financing, borrowing against the value of cargo in transit. The bank lends money, the trader buys the commodity, ships it, sells it, and then repays the loan.

The system depends heavily on documentation, including invoices, bills of lading, and warehouse receipts. Because such loans are short-term and secured mainly by paper rather than assets a lender controls, the model runs on trust in counterparties' documents. If that paperwork is unreliable, the entire financing chain can seize up, and the sequence at Radiant, from trader defections to frozen accounts within weeks, illustrates how fast that can happen.

What comes next now runs through formal channels rather than dealmaking: the police investigation, Mizuho's insolvency filing, and a creditor list that has kept growing, which will shape the queue of banks and funds awaiting repayment.