A Peruvian freight forwarder delivered goods without original B/L

In 2010, I was entrusted by a freight forwarding company in Argentina to issue a legal opinion on the delivery of goods without B/L by its Peruvian subsidiary. A number of Peruvian importers colluded with the employees of a local freight forwarding company (a subsidiary of the Argentine company). During the two years from 2009 to 2010, they defrauded Chinese exporters of more than 200 containers of goods with a value of more than US$ 8 million. Many Chinese domestic freight forwarders were sued.

The process of fraud was that the Peruvian scammers colluded with the local freight forwarding staff, the Peruvian freight forwarders designated Chinese local freight forwarders to pick up the goods, book the space with the shipping company and obtain the ocean bill of lading (OCEAN B/L). After the goods arrived at the destination ports, the Peruvian freight forwarders picked up the goods from the actual carrier on the basis of the ocean bill of lading (OCEAN B/L) forwarded by the Chinese domestic forwarders, and then the scammers took the goods by the copy of the bill of lading. Even if Chinese exporters or Chinese freight forwarders sued the Peruvian local freight forwarder, it is difficult to win because the local law does not expressly prohibit the delivery of goods upon a copy bill of lading. According to a legal opinion issued by a Peruvian senior lawyer, “delivering goods without obtaining the original bill of lading is Peru’s practice and custom, and Peruvian law recognizes this as a source of law”. In addition, if these swindler importers are sued, the importers have already transferred or even squandered the defrauded goods.

Lessons and enlightenment:

1. foreign trade companies must guard against possible legal and commercial risks in every step in their export business, and must not take any link lightly before fully recovering the payment.

2. Foreign trade companies and freight forwarders should pay special attention to the differences in bill of lading law between their motherland and Peru, especially with respect to registered bills of lading.