QUESTION
L/C allows shipment from USA to India.
In the B/L, both the place of receipt and port of loading indicate “New Jersey” and port of discharge and place of destination as name of Indian port.
B/L only states a vessel name of xxxx. No indication that any transhipment has been made. No mention of any second vessel name in the B/L.
On enquiry, it found that goods are loaded to new vessel yyy (from vessel xxx) at Seoul, Korea port on the way to the India.
Can we consider this as “fraud”? Shipping company may intentionally hide such “transhipment” information from the banks.
Your thoughts, please.
——–
ANSWER
Hi,
A nominated bank acting on its nomination, a confirming bank (if any) or the issuing bank shall examine the documents to determine, on the basis of the documents alone, whether or not the documents appear on their face to constitute a complying presentation. If the presentation is complying, it must honour. It cannot refuse to honor based on its suspicion of fraud unless it gets a court order preventing it from honouring the LC.
Kind regards,
Mr. Old Man
