Consumer Electronics · Sweden / EU · 5 min read
Ghost Factory: $50K Deposit Stopped 24 Hours Before Wire
A Swedish home-goods importer was 24 hours from wiring a $50,000 deposit to a Shenzhen "factory" with a Gold Supplier badge. Our forensic visit found an empty office.
The problem
What the importer was facing.
A Swedish home-goods brand sourced a smart-home device on Alibaba. The supplier had a 6-year Gold badge, ISO 9001, glossy factory video, and a "verified" status icon. Production was urgent — the deposit was scheduled for Friday morning.
The investigation
How we verified what was actually happening.
We pulled the AIC business registration the same day. Registered capital was paid-up but ownership had changed three times in 18 months. The "factory address" matched a serviced-office building. We dispatched an auditor from Shenzhen the next morning. The address was a 22-square-meter desk in a co-working space. No machinery. No staff. The "factory" video was footage from a public exhibition booth.
The findings
What the on-the-ground evidence showed.
The entity was a trading shell registered under three different export aliases. Two prior court judgments existed against the legal representative for non-delivery. The bank account on the proforma invoice belonged to a Hong Kong company with no link to the registered Chinese entity — a classic deposit-redirect setup.
The outcome
What we recovered, prevented, or proved.
Client cancelled the order Friday morning. We introduced two pre-audited OEMs in Dongguan within 10 working days. First production run shipped on time and to spec four months later.
