Progress seen in settlement of suspected cashew nut scam in Italy

Rome (VNA) – Italian police have kept four containers of cashew nuts delivered to this country’s Port of Genoa, a stride in the settlement of a suspected scam involving 100 cashew nut containers exported from Vietnam.

Vietnam’s trade office in Italy said on March 10 this is an encouraging step that the Vietnamese companies with the product being transported to Italian ports can consider.

To deal with the case, a delegation from the trade office came to Naples on March 10 to meet Vietnam’s Honorary Consul in this city Silvio Vecchione and many agencies in southern Italy, including the Port of Naples, military police, tax authorities, banks, and the delivery firm DHL - the main points of transit of the 36 sets of original documents that Vietnamese firms lost track of.

Signs of a scam became clearer when some banks said they had received only photocopied documents or blank papers sent to the persons without accounts at those banks.

Trade Counsellor in Italy Nguyen Duc Thanh said only 36 sets of documents are being lost, noting that among the 100 sets of original documents, Vietnamese companies have retained over 50 and reclaimed many others returned by DHL.

The most important thing is that the first four containers to arrive at the Port of Genoa have been kept by Italy’s financial police thanks to timely actions by relevant parties, he said, adding that lawyers will continue working with relevant agencies of Italy to return the goods to Vietnam, or let the companies sell the cashew nuts to other buyers in Italy or other countries.

Authorised by Vietnam’s Trade Office, Honorary Consul Silvio Vecchione filed a denunciation of the cashew nut scam to Naples police.

He recommended that when trading with Italian firms, Vietnamese businesses should learn information about their partners through the Vietnamese Embassy, the trade office, and honorary consuls here so as to maximise safety for bilateral transactions.

He also affirmed his readiness to assist Vietnamese businesses to learn about and work with Italian partners./.