Pitfalls of Doing Big International Brokerage Business Online
Nothing has helped international brokerage business more than the internet: it enables a businessperson to do business with little or no capital and to make quick contacts. Yet nothing has made the brokerage business riskier. This comes from a broker unknowingly linking genuine or false buyers with genuine or false sellers. Other ingredients also exist to cook the broker an unpalatable soup.
When all seemed bleak, I felt the internet was my best bet to boost my business. I visited some B2B portals and posted trade leads. An Italian, Arnoldo Marchetti, contacted me as mandate of an Austrian firm, Holzhдuser GmbH, and offered me NPK 10-20-20 (10% Nitrogen, 20% Phosphorous, 20% Potassium) fertilizer. I posted the offer on a site called Alibaba. The same day a German buyer, Schneider GmbH, contacted me with NCND, LOI with banking coordinates, and the authorization to verify the availability of funds. I emailed the NCND to Arnoldo and Holzhдuser for their details and signatures. Then I emailed the LOI to Holzhдuser. A week later, Holzhaьser replied that what they had was NPK 10-10-10! When they heard this, Schneider blacklisted me.
This was the case of a genuine buyer meeting a fake seller. But it could also be a genuine buyer and a genuine seller. But Holzhдuser and Schneider having known each other, might have decided to kick me from the deal. Why? Because of greed: they probably wanted to keep all the commissions for themselves.
With the NCND signed, couldn’t I have sued? Sure, I could, but there was no proof that the deal had succeeded. To find out would require a lawyer but I didn’t have the funds to hire one. This is how the NCND, supposed to protect one, can become an inefficient tool.
Soon after a German lady called Gisela offered me Libyan crude oil. I was now in contact with several companies, one of which was an American conglomerate, AAA Commodity Dealers, which needed crude oil. I got an NCND signed by all parties and sent AAA the offer. They began negotiations with the Libyans but I was kept in the dark. Not even Gisela was being informed. It was weeks later we learnt the commission had been apportioned. Gisela got a pittance thanks to the German mandate. But I was offered nothing. AAA considered that I had done no work. I asked them to justify their stand but received no reply. Months later, the German mandate informed us that the deal had failed because AAA wanted part of the commission for the Libyans, who, they figured, were taking the lion’s share.
This illustrates a ge
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