Broker Fraud in Freight Payments: How a Timely Legal Strategy Protected the Shipowner’s Interests
1 May, 2026
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Recently, the Interlegal team successfully resolved a dispute on behalf of its Client – a Shipowner – arising from a breach of freight payment obligations under a Charter Party.
The essence of the dispute was that, at the time of the vessel’s arrival at the discharge port, the freight remained unpaid, while the Charterer alleged that payment obligations had been duly performed, relying on an alleged transfer of funds to a third party who, as it later transpired, had no connection either to the Client or to the terms of the concluded Charter Party.
The facts of the case revealed clear indications of fraudulent conduct by one of the brokers involved in the transaction. In the recap sent to the Charterer, the broker wrongfully designated an affiliated company as the vessel’s manager and provided its own banking details as the Freight Beneficiary, while the recap issued to the Shipowner contained the correct details of our Client. The broker also produced a falsified SWIFT purporting to confirm payment and subsequently ceased all communication between the parties. Importantly, such circumstances did not discharge the Charterer from its primary obligation to duly pay freight in accordance with the Charter Party, which formed a key pillar of our legal position.
Without delay, we promptly conducted a legal assessment of the situation, prepared and issued a substantiated claim to the Charterer, thereby initiating active negotiations between the parties and their legal representatives.
As a result of intensive yet efficient claims handling, the Shipowner received the freight in full, and the Charterer additionally covered the PDA, thereby avoiding, inter alia, a potential cargo lien and further delays during discharge operations.
This case once again underscores the importance of timely legal intervention, sector-specific expertise, and effective negotiation in achieving swift and favorable outcomes for clients. It also highlights the necessity of proper due diligence of counterparties, brokers, and charterparty data incorporated into contracts – an area in which our team provides prompt and effective legal support aimed at preventing similar situations in the future.
The matter was handled by the Interlegal team comprising Senior Associate Taras Dragan, Lawyer Diana Mykhailova, Junior Lawyer Sofiia Davara, under the overall supervision of Partner Karyna Gorova.
