A Toledo com­pany that has sup­plied steel for the Detroit Three auto­makers and raw ma­teri­als to steel mills says it was duped eight years ago by a Chi­nese busi­ness that claimed to have a great sup­ply of cok­ing coal for sale.

After nearly a de­cade of le­gal wran­gling over­seas, Heidt­man Steel Products Inc. is still owed nearly $5.9 mil­lion, plus 5 per­cent in­ter­est from the Chi­nese com­pany. The in­ter­est brings the award to about $7 mil­lion.

"A sim­ple busi­ness trans­ac­tion. Well, it never shipped and they never re­turned the money," said Mark Ride­nour, chief fi­nan­cial of­fi­cer for Heidt­man Steel. "I think we got ripped off, to be per­fectly hon­est. I think we got shang­haied..."

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