Cargo fraud: Fraud of Turkish company selling stones on copper order worth 36 million caught
In Turkey, fraudsters have seized 36 million from Mercury, one of the world's five largest oil companies.
A Turkish company, Batson Baqir, struck a deal with Mercury, a Geneva-based company, for 10,000 tons of raw copper for 36 million, but shipped it to China instead of copper.
Police in Turkey have arrested several people. Police say it is the work of an organized criminal gang. According to reports, Mercury Energy Group has sold 10,000 tons of crude copper to a company in Turkey.
Mercury Energy Group learned that it had been deceived when the goods began arriving at a Chinese port.
Independent inspectors inspected the planes before the goods left, but the criminals still managed to commit the crime.
According to reports, last year Mercury signed an agreement with a Turkish company to supply 6,000 tons of crude copper to China.
At a port near Istanbul, ships were filled with colored stones instead of copper, which looked like raw copper.
Mercury, one of the world's five largest oil traders, is taking legal action against Bateson Baqir in Turkey and the United Kingdom over the fraud.
Turkish police have arrested several people on suspicion of involvement in the scam.
The Mercury Company thanked the Istanbul Financial Crimes Department and said that the suspects who were part of the organized crime had been detained.
Copper sheets
The cells were broken
Preliminary investigations suggest that the fraudsters first filled the ships with copper and, after inspection by independent inspectors, removed the cells, removed the copper from the containers, filled them with painted stones, and then pasted the fake cells.
When the cargo ships sailed to their destination, the buyer paid 36 million as agreed. But the fraud was discovered when ships began arriving at the Chinese port of Lianying Gang.
Turkish police say the buyer has filed a complaint against the seller as well as the two people who signed the contract, and an investigation has revealed that the fraud was committed in a very systematic manner.
In such a trade, if the trader does not get the goods he has bought, he can recover his sunk money through a cargo insurance policy. But in this case, the buyer company has found that only one of the seven cargo insurance contracts is valid while the rest are fake.
Turkish company Betson Baqir, which had a copper supply agreement with Mercuria, did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
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