When a supplier payment disappears after fake instructions, changed accounts, or a suspicious beneficiary, recipient-bank and correspondent-bank records can become the fastest path to identify the payee, preserve evidence, and plan recovery.
Separate the sending bank receipt from recipient bank, intermediary bank, correspondent bank, and beneficiary-account records.
Compare bank-account data with invoices, contracts, trade names, Hong Kong or personal beneficiaries, shipping documents, and email headers.
Bank records can support expedited discovery, asset preservation, Hague-service exhibits, and settlement pressure when reachable U.S. records exist.
A wire receipt usually proves that money left the buyer account. It may not prove who controlled the destination account, whether an intermediary bank processed the funds, or whether the beneficiary name matches the Chinese supplier, factory, agent, or invoice issuer.
Organize SWIFT MT103 records, wire confirmations, recall requests, fraud reports, beneficiary-account information, revised invoices, email headers, WeChat messages, purchase orders, shipping records, and any bank response. The sequence matters because a bank subpoena works best when it asks for precise records tied to the payment trail.
The bank trail can affect who should be named as a defendant, which Chinese name and address need verification, whether a Hong Kong or U.S. intermediary matters, and whether expedited discovery or asset-preservation relief is realistic before funds move again.
This page is general information, not legal advice. Payment tracing, defendant selection, Hague service, and recovery strategy should be reviewed before filing because account names, platform records, entity names, and service addresses can diverge.
Sometimes a party can seek targeted discovery or preservation relief before judgment, but the standard depends on the court, claim, urgency, and where the bank or records are located.
An MT103 is useful but often must be matched against invoice, contract, beneficiary, email, and shipment evidence before defendant selection is reliable.
It can. If the bank trail points to a different entity, affiliate, owner, or payee, the complaint and China service package may need to be built around the correct legal names and addresses.