Mango Europe, Novobox Serbia, Novobox France blackmailing to pay up front otherwise won't ship the merchandise Lyon France

We’ve ordered merchandise from the company called MANGO with its address in Lyon, France and Serbia. The merchandise was made in China and was supposed to be shipped to US and UK. The contract was to pay a downpayment of 40% and 30% upon shipping. We were supposed to pay the last 30% after we received the merchandise. Right before the merchandise was supposed to be shipped we got an email from the owner blackmailing us into paying the last 30% before he would ship the merchandise, otherwise he wouldn't ship anything and we would miss the delivery dates we had with our customer. We tried to talk to him, make him understand that a contract should be respected and this is totally unacceptable. Nothing worked and in the end we had to pay the last 30% so we could receive our merchandise. After we received the merchandise, our suspicions were confirmed, the products sent did not match the approved proof and the client refused the merchandise. We lost thousands of dollars re-doing it with another vendor and more importantly lost a customer.