Find the “hidden person” suspected of defrauding 100 containers of cashews exported to Italy

Talking to the press, Vietnam Trade Counselor in Italy Nguyen Duc Thanh said that COSCO shipping company has received a set of original documents for a container of cashew nuts from the buyer to pick up the goods. When this person came to receive the goods, the authorities kept the goods and did not deliver them. The documents are then checked and confirmed to be genuine. “The buyer has revealed himself to be a fraudster, illegally appropriating the original documents without paying the seller,” Mr. Thanh said.

This is the first and important evidence for the prosecution agencies of Vietnam and Italy to quickly launch the investigation process of a large-value fraud case of a group of foreigners with enterprise Vietnam.

The Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) also said that signs of fraud by foreign businesses are increasingly appearing. The tactics in banking transactions between buyers and sellers are very sophisticated. The original sets of documents were returned according to your bank’s response, but the buyer somehow managed to get them through a random lead.

The association is still working with stakeholders to support the business. The Trade Office and the Vietnamese Embassy in Italy will work with shipping lines to regain ownership of the containers for Vietnamese businesses; connecting with overseas Vietnamese in Italy who have warehouses and workshops to store at low cost; assist in finding reputable distributors in Europe to resell the consignment as soon as they take control.

The containers were ordered by the Italian police agency to blockade, not allowing anyone to go to the port to pick up the goods, so that Vietnamese businesses can consolidate evidence to regain ownership of them. But to do this, it is imperative that the business has original documents or an urgent judgment of the court or related agencies on the decision to return the ownership to the seller.

Previously, Vinacas said that many cashew nut businesses in the country were in danger of losing nearly 100 containers worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Europe. These businesses all signed contracts through Kim Hanh Viet Brokerage Company to export cashew kernels to Italy but did not receive payment.

These shipments have been arriving at a number of Italian ports. However, when the enterprise sends the application to collect money from the Vietnamese bank to the Turkish bank of the buyer according to the instructions, the SWIFT number (the unique code of each bank used in related transactions) will be changed. banks globally). After the buyer’s bank received the documents, they informed that the buyer was not their customer and returned the documents but did not specify any form of payment even though the Vietnamese bank had contacted them many times.

Some customers sent documents to the Italian bank, the Italian bank replied that the documents they received were photocopies, not originals. Currently, Vietnamese enterprises do not know where the original documents are. Meanwhile, anyone with the original set of documents can go to the carrier to pick up the goods.

Vinacas is calling for the support and intervention of the competent authorities and shipping lines, asking the shipping lines to apply “urgent” measures – temporarily hold the consignments located at the port and will arrive at the port. .