By Shariq Khan and Robert Harvey

NEW YORK/LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) – Gunvor’s new CEO, Gary Pedersen, stressed it was business as usual for the Swiss-based commodities trader during a Reuters interview on Tuesday, a day after he took over as part of an abrupt management buyout of co-founder Torbjorn Tornqvist.

Monday’s announcement of the management buyout took many by surprise and marked the end of Tornqvist’s 25-year leadership of Gunvor, while making Pedersen the first American to lead a major Swiss commodities trading firm since billionaire Marc Rich, who was indicted on tax evasion and other charges.

Gunvor is scrambling to smooth over its relationship with the U.S. after the Treasury dubbed it “the Kremlin’s puppet”, and torpedoed its buyout of sanctioned Russian major Lukoil’s int

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