The Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) has raised its voice on a suspected cashew nut export scam as some Vietnamese exporters have lost control over bills of lading for 36 containers of cashew nuts shipped to Italy and Turkey, with the combined value of US$7 million.

The association released the information on Wednesday evening at a press conference, where its standing vice-president Bach Khanh Nhut confirmed the total contract value of the 36 shipping containers at about $7.025 million.

Vinacas said it had received a petition from the exporters seeking support in the settlement of the incident.

The shipping lines related to these exports include Cosco, Yangming, HMM, and One, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

The 36 containers were part of a total of 100 containers for which the exporters had signed contracts through a broker, Ho Chi Minh City-based Kim Hanh Viet One Member Co. Ltd., using the ‘documents against payment’ (D/P) method, according to Vinacas.

Among the 36 containers, 34 were sent to Italy and the rest were shipped to Turkey, Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper cited Nhut as saying.

The loss of control of these commodities occurred last month, Vinacas said.

Service banks in Vietnam said that they had transferred all the original documents of the 36 containers through an international express courier to banks designated by importers in Italy and Turkey, but these lenders said they had merely received the photocopies of the bills of lading.

As such, the exporters are facing a loss of $7.025 million as they are unable to verify the original documents, Nhut said. 

Vinacas have worked with all the related Vietnamese banks, exporters, and shipping lines but the whereabouts of the original shipping paperwork remain unknown.

In addition, apathetic and unclear responses from banks in Italy make the case even more complicated, he added.

“Currently, we are on tenterhooks because anyone holding the original documents can present them to the carriers to pick up the cargoes,” Tien Phong (Pioneer) newspaper cited the appeal of the exporters concerned.

Vinacas has yet to disclose the names of the exporters and the banks involved.

“The matter becomes urgent because two or three containers have reached a port in Italy, and the remaining will arrive this month," Nhut explained.

"Meanwhile, the shipping firms still stick to international practices, meaning whoever has the original documents will receive the goods.

“If they do not deliver the goods, the person who has the original documents will have enough grounds to sue the shipping firms.

“If it is true that the bank in Italy has received the photocopies only, then there might be an intervention by a criminal organization that replaced the originals with the copies during the delivery process."

Given this suspected scam, Vinacas has sent an urgent notice to the Vietnamese Embassy and the Trade Office of Vietnam in Italy, asking them to coordinate with competent authorities and talk with shipping lines so that they do not deliver the commodities to those consignees carrying the original bills of lading. 

Some related businesses have got in touch with the owner of the brokerage firm, who is said to stay in the U.S. at the moment, but the information exchanged between them was quite sparse, prompting some of them to cast doubt on its involvement in the scam, Vinacas said.

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