On a simple consult for a new line of bags, the client came upon a potentially disastrous problem: international wire fraud. When a wire transfer went missing, the seller blamed the buyer, the buyer blamed the seller. The funds were completely unaccounted for.
A scam was in the midst. Luckily, I was on that inspection, on the ground in China. I walked in to meet a team of attorneys and the police. Speaking Mandarin, I was able to work through the banking system (four hours north, in downtown Shanghai) to find the problem. After several days of tense discussions, we found the problem. A Nigerian scan artist has intercepted the nearly $20,000 USD wire, we immediately rectified the problem … the company was rescued from bankruptcy.
If the scam had worked, the goods would have been seized in customs, the buyer would sue the seller, and the seller would sue the buyer and suffer the loss of $20,000 in lost goods. The business would have closed. Today the client just sold the business at a profit.