36 cashew containers exported to Italy without origin invoices

In the case that 36 cashew carrying containers from Vietnam to Italia without sufficient documents, the sign of an international fraud is quite clear. The Vietnamese bank (on behalf of the seller) sent the original documents to the foreign banks but the foreign banks only received the copies of the documents or empty papart to those who do not have an account at those banks.

According to one of the five cashew exporters which are involve in the mentioned above cashew export, a good result is that the first four containers arriving at Genoa port have been kept by the Italian police thanks to timely information from the Vietnamese side. Currently, the whole Italian port system has been alerted to this incident.

To continue dealing with the remaining containers of cashews exported to Italy, on March 10, the Vietnam Trade Office delegation in Italy went to Naples City, more than 200km from Rome to work with the consulate service of Vietnam in Naples and related agencies in the southern part of the country such as the port authority of Naples, military police, tax authorities, banks and DHL (express delivery service provider), transit places where received 36 sets of original documents that Vietnamese companies lost control of.

Tran Huu Hau, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas), said that according to preliminary information obtained by the association, the Vietnamese Trade Counselor in Italy has arrived in time to work with the local authorities in Genoa port area and shipping lines such as Cosco, Yangming, HMM, One ... to intervene to suspend the delivery of goods if one party presents the original dossier. Italia’s authorities agreed to cooperate with Vietnam’s ones. However, according to the International Commercial Maritime Law, when someone submits the original documents, the carrier is forced to deliver the goods, no one has the right to interfere.

“The shipping line just won't deliver in case they get a court order. This is an issue between businesses, forced to comply with international maritime law, shipping lines are only shipping intermediaries. Thus, if a third party presents the original set of documents, Vietnamese businesses that want to claim the goods back must wait for a court session," said Hau.

Regarding the case, information from the representative of the export business and from Vinacas said that Ms. Huynh Kim Hanh, director of Kim Hanh Viet Company (brokerage unit), had called from the US to the association and shared information about "committed to working with Vinacas and related parties to solve the case of cashew containers exported to Italy".

Via phone, Hanh said she would fly to Italy to work with the local authorities in the Genoa port area (Italy) and shipping lines. After that, she will fly back to Vietnam to work with related units. However, according to Deputy General Secretary of Vinacas Tran Huu Hau, this was just  what Hanh said.

“No thing confirmes if  Hanh will go to Italy or not and will return to Vietnam to settle the matter. Whether the case is as committed or not is unknown,” he said.

What is the role of Kim Hanh Viet company?

Searching for Kim Hanh Viet on the Google, results show that this company has three addresses in Ho Chi Minh City. The registered address in the business license is No. 18, Street No. 3, Ward Binh An, District 2, Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City with the full name of Kim Hanh Viet One Member Co., Ltd. Representative: Huynh Kim Hanh; Established in 2016. This business registered to operate in the following industries: brokerage and trading of raw cashew products, cashew kernels for export to the Middle East, India and Europe markets... supplying, trading in flavorings and spices such as pepper, sesame, anise, cinnamon.

In addition, Kim Hanh Viet also has real estate brokerage services in Ho Chi Minh City.

The company’s second address is No. 622A An Phu, Ward An Phu, District 2, Thu Duc City, HCMC; Legal representative: Huynh Kim Hanh; Year of establishment 2007. On the company website Kim Hanh Viet, in addition to the landline phone numbers, there are also two mobile numbers, however, no one receives calls to the numbers . When contacted via the desk phone number registered on the website of Kim Hanh Viet company, a male employee picked up the phone, confirming that it was Kim Hanh Viet Company. However, when reporter mentioned about the shipping containers exported to Italy, this employee hung up.

In addition, Kim Hanh Viet Company has a third address at No. 561A, Dien Bien Phu, Ward 25, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City. The website of Kim Hanh Viet company (Vietnamese and English) is quite simple, with the address information and the image of director Kim Hanh Viet, only the first page of the business registration certificate is posted. Accordingly, the company registered for the first time in 2007. Since then, there have been 6 registration changes. The last time was in 2017. Charter capital is VND20 billion.

Commenting on the roles and responsibilities of the parties such as five banks, shipping companies, especially brokerage companies (Kim Hanh Viet), Lawyer Ngo The Tien, former lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City Law University for that the above payment transaction was conducted by the method of D/P (Documents Against Payment).

Accordingly, this is a payment by collection, which means that businesses sell cashews thanks to 5 Vietnamese banks to collect payment on behalf of them. If you want to collect it, the original set of documents, including many papers such as: quarantine papers, warehouse statistics, inspection ..., but in that, the most important document is the bill of lading for the shipping company must be transferred by Vietnamese banks to the collection bank for the buyer (Italy) via DHL courier. After that, the buyer's bank will transfer the money back to the Vietnamese bank to pay the cashew businesses.

Italian banks announced that they only received photocopies of documents, which means that the original documents have been lost, stolen, or the Italian bank itself "has a problem". Of course, this is just a subjective opinion. It is worth mentioning that the buyer side has the right to designate any bank in the world to make the transaction. This is a risk factor when the seller does not always know well about the capacity of the bank that the partner chooses, the lawyer said.

Responding to the role of the brokerage company Kim Hanh Viet, lawyer Tien said that when performing the transaction, both the buyer and the seller signed a contract with the brokerage company Kim Hanh Viet. Therefore, when there is a risk, the broker still has to bear a part of the responsibility. This is clearly stated in the law on commerce, brokerage.