Vivo India, Related Firms Raided At 44 Places By Enforcement Directorate

The Enforcement Directorate has conducted searches at as many as 44 places across India. The raid was a part of a money-laundering investigation against the Chinese smartphone maker Vivo and related firms, stated officials. These searches are being carried out under the various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

ED Raids Vivo And Other Firms

In a major crackdown, ED has raided Chinese companies, including Vivo in various states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. At the time of writing, the searches are still underway.

Last month, the mobile phone manufacturer's distributor in Jammu and Kashmir, Grand Prospect International Communication came under the scanner of enforcement agencies. It was found by the corporate affairs ministry that at least a couple of Chinese shareholders submitted bogus Indian addresses and forged documents.

Late last year, the Income Tax Department had searched premises of Vivo and other such Chinese firms, including Oppo, Xiaomi and OnePlus, at over 20 places. The raid was carried out based on the intelligence reports of tax evasion in several hundreds of crores by producing losses and lower revenue than the actual value that was generated.

Even the Chinese government-controlled telecom vendor ZTE was raided with searches conducted at five premises, including its corporate office.

Xiaomi Came Under Investigation

Besides Vivo, the agency has been investigating the Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi for the past few months. In April, the agency said that the smartphone maker had transferred funds abroad illegally to three entities. One of them was a Xiaomi group entity and it was done in the disguise of royalty payments.

The agency seized $725 million (approx. Rs. 5.6 crores) from Xiaomi's local bank accounts. The decision regarding the same has been put on hold by an Indian court following a legal challenge by the company. As per Xiaomi, the royalty payments were all legitimate and were for the IPs and in-licensed technologies used in the Indian products.

In the court filings, Xiaomi noted that these payments were made to firms, including Qualcomm, the US chip maker. A relevant discloser has also been made to the Indian authorities.