Early in March 2008, the company Nordstern Solar*, represented by its manager Paul Axbein*, made an offer of an attractive limited quantity of solar modules amounting to a megawatt peak. Axbein assured inquirers that the goods originally came from a respectable source, but in this case the modules had been acquired from a project in Greece that had fallen through.
Terms of delivery not ideal
An Italian company was interested in the goods and agreement in principle was soon reached. Delivery is arranged for the end of May. The purchaser is even prepared to pay a part of the purchase price in advance provided that security is given. At the end of March it is still not clear, however, whether the required certificates exist and whether Nordstern Solar can provide security. The seller does not appear to be familiar with trade in solar modules. The reference companies supplied by Nordstern confirm, however, that Axbein is reliable. The purchaser therefore decides to fly with an adviser to Hamburg at the beginning of April to speak with Axbein.
Face-to-face negotiations successful
Having arrived in Hamburg the Italians meet Axbein at a restaurant (the company's offices "cannot presently be used"). Axbein makes a sympathetic impression and apologizes for the fact that the transaction is not proceeding as it should. He normally works in the wind energy sector, but for occasional trading in solar modules he had formed a new company. Axbein still declines to name his pre-supplier, but says that it is a well-known company in northern Germany. The technical data sheets of the modules suggest that this is the fact. Despite misgivings the Italians agree that Axbein has made a serious impression and apparently already sold modules to other customers.
The conditions
The purchaser agrees to pay 20 per cent in advance, provided he is given the flash lists. Other papers are not yet available, but Axbein gives an assurance that he will stand surety for delivery. The goods cannot be inspected, although they are already in store at Hamburg docks. The Italian buyer flies home and waits for the papers. The requested flash lists then actually arrive, and prepayment of around 600,000 euros is made. The buyer is satisfied, since he is under enormous pressure and urgently requires the modules for a project.
The dealer disappears
From mid-May Axbein can be contacted neither by telephone nor in writing. Investigations show that the claimed successful deals with other customers never existed. The reference companies are part of the fraud. But how can the correct flash lists be explained? The papers were obtained by illegal means from another deal and falsified. The modules listed in these papers had been manufactured eight months earlier and therefore actually existed. But Nordstern Solar never had the goods at its disposal. Another buyer, completely uninvolved in the present fraud, had already delivered the modules to his customers at the beginning of the year. Axbein had therefore simply passed on outdated papers.
Axbein's smart action shows that one can trust neither information obtained on the telephone from reference partners who are unknown in the industry nor papers that are provided in the form of a copy or fax. Here, the conclusiveness of information has to be verified.
* Names have been changed. Similarities with existing persons or companies are purely coincidental and therefore not intended. Circumstances have been simplified in part or presented exemplarily.