---
title: "What should enterprises do to urgently stop losses and pursue legal liability when an export agent misappropriates overseas payments?"
description: "Enterprises that encounter export agents embezzling overseas payments not only face direct losses such as broken capital chains and blocked export tax refunds，but may also face a trust crisis among overseas customers due to failure to perform contracts，and even trigger chain risks in the supply chain. It is necessary to fix evidence to pursue liability as soon as possible，simultaneously open temporary foreign exchange collection channels to ensure business operation，and finally build long-term r..."
url: "https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/urgent-loss-stop-and-legal-liability-for-export-agent-fund-embezzlement.html"
language: "en"
type: "Q&A"
category: "Export Agency Q&A"
datePublished: "2026-07-22"
dateModified: "2026-07-22"
brand: "Zhongshen Trading China"
answerCount: 7
---

# What should enterprises do to urgently stop losses and pursue legal liability when an export agent misappropriates overseas payments?

## Question

 I am the owner of a small and medium-sized factory in Shanghai that mainly exports hardware tools. I have been working with the same agency for 5 years to handle foreign exchange collection, customs declaration and tax refund for my foreign trade business. Last Wednesday, I received the payment slip from my German overseas customer, stating that the payment of 120,000 euros had been transferred to the agency's account. But I urged the agency to settle the exchange for three consecutive days, they first prevaricated with excuses such as "delayed bank receipt" and "system maintenance", and then simply stopped answering my calls. I asked a friend working at a bank to check, and found that the money actually arrived last Thursday, and was transferred by the agency to an unfamiliar private account on the same day. Now I can't get the payment, so I can't pay wages to workers and settle payments to upstream suppliers. I am also afraid that abnormal foreign exchange collection will affect subsequent export tax refunds, and my German customer is still urging me to arrange the booking plan for the next batch of goods. I am so anxious that I can't eat, and I want to ask how to deal with this situation to minimize losses as much as possible? 

## Answers
                            
### Answer 1 — Best Answer

Initiate emergency loss stopping operations immediately: immediately obtain the receipt and transfer vouchers of the agency's account through the bank，sort out WeChat and phone communication records with the agency and the official payment slip of the overseas customer at the same time，report the case to the local economic investigation department and report the agency's illegal foreign exchange collection and payment behavior to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange，**fixing core evidence is the key prerequisite for legal liability pursuit**.

Ensure business continuity simultaneously: notify the overseas German customer by email and phone immediately to suspend any payment to the original agency account，and temporarily switch to your own registered offshore account for foreign exchange collection，for export tax refunds，immediately submit a written explanation and full set of supporting materials to the competent tax authority，and apply for suspending the tax refund verification of this business，to avoid your own tax refund qualification being implicated by the agency's abnormality.

Trace back loopholes and build long-term risk control: this risk exposes the core loophole of failing to carry out special account supervision over the agency's foreign exchange collection account. In the future，you should agree with the cooperating agency that payments will be deposited into an exclusive supervision account，require the agency to provide real-time arrival notifications，and verify the foreign exchange receipt and payment details every quarter，at the same time，clearly stipulate the liability for breach of contract for embezzlement of payments in the agency agreement，agree on a liquidated damages of no less than 15% of the total payment amount and judicial liability pursuit paths，so as to avoid similar risks from the source.

**status:** accepted
**Author:** Cindy Chen
**Date:** 2026-07-22

### Answer 2

If the subsequent customs declaration documents cannot be obtained in time or are abnormal due to the agency's embezzlement of payments, you shall immediately submit a Customs Declaration Abnormality Explanation to the customs, and provide supporting materials such as the overseas customer's payment slip and the agency's account transfer voucher, to apply for suspending the customs clearance verification of the declaration form for this batch of goods. At the same time, if you have arranged the booking for the next batch of goods, you shall immediately change the customs declaration header, use your self-operated customs declaration qualification or the customs declaration authority of other compliant agencies, to avoid subsequent goods being detained or delayed at the port due to the original agency's abnormal credit.

In addition, you shall simultaneously require the original agency to return the blank customs declaration forms and electronic port card that have been collected. If the agency refuses, you can apply to the customs for loss reporting and reapply, to ensure that subsequent customs declaration operations are not affected.

**status:** suggested
**Author:** Daniel Xu
**Date:** 2026-07-22

### Answer 3

If the agency's embezzlement of payments leads to failure to pay logistics fees such as ocean freight and storage fees, you shall immediately contact the freight forwarder and the port terminal, explain the situation and provide the overseas customer's payment voucher, and apply for delayed payment of logistics fees or splitting of the fee payment nodes. At the same time, if the goods have not been shipped, you shall immediately replace the booking agent and transfer the cargo rights to the name of the new logistics service provider, to avoid the original agency detaining the goods due to capital problems.

For goods already in transit, you shall require the shipping company to issue a bill of lading control certificate to confirm that the cargo rights are still under your name, and notify the overseas customer to cooperate in modifying the consignee information on the bill of lading, to avoid the goods being maliciously picked up by the original agency. In addition, you shall simultaneously sort out the existing logistics cooperation agreements, add exclusive clauses for cargo rights protection, to ensure that the cargo rights in subsequent logistics links are independent of the agency's foreign exchange collection situation.

**status:** suggested
**Author:** Eric Zhou
**Date:** 2026-07-22

### Answer 4

In view of the tax risks that may be caused by the agency's embezzlement of payments, first of all, you shall submit an Export Tax Refund Abnormality Report to the competent tax authority, explain in detail the process of the agency's embezzlement of payments, and provide supporting materials such as the overseas customer's payment slip, the agency's account transfer voucher, and the cooperation agreement with the agency, to apply for listing the export business corresponding to this payment as "abnormal verification temporary storage", to avoid being judged as "deemed domestic sales" and required to pay value-added tax additionally due to abnormal foreign exchange collection.

At the same time, if you have prepaid part of the value-added tax, you can apply for suspending the deduction or tax refund, and process it after the problem is resolved. In addition, you shall re-sort out your own tax structure, consider adopting the separation mode of "self-operated foreign exchange collection + agency customs declaration", to isolate the foreign exchange collection link from agency services, and avoid your own tax compliance being affected by the agency's capital problems.

**status:** suggested
**Author:** Evelyn Li
**Date:** 2026-07-22

### Answer 5

After discovering that the agency has embezzled payments, you shall immediately submit a Foreign Exchange Receipt and Payment Abnormality Report Letter to the local State Administration of Foreign Exchange, provide materials such as the receipt record of the agency's account, transfer voucher, and the overseas customer's payment instruction, to report the agency's illegal act of embezzling foreign exchange funds.

At the same time, you shall immediately notify the overseas customer to modify the payee information for subsequent payments, and switch to your self-operated foreign exchange account registered with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange or the special foreign exchange collection account of other compliant agencies, to ensure that subsequent foreign exchange collection meets the foreign exchange supervision requirements. In addition, you shall simultaneously sort out your own foreign exchange receipt and payment ledger, file the relevant materials of this abnormal payment separately, cooperate with the verification work of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and avoid your own foreign exchange verification qualification being affected due to the agency's violation.

**status:** suggested
**Author:** Andy Guo
**Date:** 2026-07-22

### Answer 6

First of all, you shall sort out all written materials related to the agency, including the agency cooperation agreement, WeChat and phone communication records, customer payment slips, bank statement details, etc., entrust a professional lawyer to send a Lawyer's Letter to the agency, requiring it to return the embezzled payment within 3 working days and bear the corresponding liquidated damages. If the agency refuses to return, you can file a civil lawsuit with the court, and apply for property preservation at the same time, to freeze the agency's bank account and related assets, and ensure that the payment can be successfully executed after winning the lawsuit.

In addition, you shall sign a supplementary agreement with the overseas German customer, explain the abnormal situation of payment collection and payment in detail, strive for the customer's understanding and agree on a new path for subsequent payments, to avoid customer loss caused by the agency's problem. At the same time, you shall revise the future agency cooperation agreement, add core clauses such as "special account supervision for payments" and "liability pursuit for embezzlement", and clarify the rights, obligations and liability for breach of contract of both parties.

**status:** suggested
**Author:** Linda Gao
**Date:** 2026-07-22

### Answer 7

In view of the problem of blocked tax refunds caused by the agency's embezzlement of payments, you shall immediately sort out the full set of documents for this export business, including the customs declaration form, input value-added tax invoice, export contract, customer payment slip, agency account transfer voucher, etc., and submit them to the tax refund audit department of the competent tax authority to apply for special verification. At the same time, you shall cooperate with the letter investigation work of the tax authority, and provide materials such as the procurement contract and payment vouchers of upstream suppliers to prove the authenticity of the business, so as to avoid being judged as false export due to abnormal foreign exchange collection.

In addition, you shall re-sort out the management process of tax refund documents, advance the verification of foreign exchange collection vouchers to before the tax refund declaration, to ensure that the foreign exchange collection vouchers of each export business are true and effective. At the same time, establish an early warning mechanism for tax refund abnormalities, and immediately launch an emergency plan once delayed or abnormal foreign exchange collection is found, to avoid affecting the overall tax refund progress.

**status:** suggested
**Author:** Kevin Lin
**Date:** 2026-07-22

## Related Categories
- [Import Agency Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-import-agency/)
- [Export Tax Rebate Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-export-tax-rebate/)
- [Customs Declaration Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-customs-declaration/)
- [Freight Forwarding Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-freight-forwarding/)
- [Forex Settlement Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-forex-settlement/)
- [Entrepôt Trade Q&A](https://www.sh-zhongshen.com/en/qa/cat-entrepot-trade/)
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