In February, through the brokerage company Kim Hanh Viet, Vietnamese enterprises signed contracts with some Italian firms to export 100 containers of cashew nuts to Italy. Detecting a risk of a scam, the enterprises halted their shipments. However, they still lost control of 35 containers worth about $7 million due to a loss of the original documents.

After a few months, 30 out of the 35 containers have now been shipped back to Vietnam or were sold to other clients. The Vietnamese side continued to work with regulatory bodies to obtain the remaining five containers that were still stuck at an Italian port.

On May 27, the civil court of Larino issued a decision to return the ownership of three out of the five containers to Vietnam. On June 15 and 16, the Napoli Economic-Financial Police and the Genoa Port Military Police made a decision to return the last two containers.

Tran Thanh Hai, vice director of the Agency for Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, attributed the achievement to successful measures taken to protect the legitimate interests of businesses in accordance with the provisions of domestic and international laws.

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien sent an official letter to the Italian ministers of the Economy and Finance as well as the foreign affairs and international cooperation agencies to request their coordination. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also spoke directly with his Italian counterpart Mario Draghi to ask for support to settle the case.