ED arrests 4 in case against Chinese phone-maker Vivo, says their acts detrimental to India’s economic sovereignty

PTI, Oct 10, 2023, 8:36 PM IST

New Delhi: The ED Tuesday arrested four persons including the managing director of Lava International mobile company and a Chinese national in connection with a money-laundering probe against smartphone maker Vivo, with sources terming their activities detrimental to India’s economic sovereignty.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed in its remand papers before a local court that the alleged activities of the four enabled Vivo, India to make wrongful gains.

They four arrested were identified as Hari Om Rai, the MD of Lava International company, Chinese national Guangwen alias Andrew Kuang, and Chartered Accountants Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik.

They have been taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The agency told the court that Rai, ”in collusion” with the three others ”enabled Vivo, China to fraudulently establish a complex centrally controlled structure all over the country under the corporate veil of Vivo, India in circumvention of the extant FDI norms and by concealing the true nature of their ownership and control, by using forged identity cards.

Thus, they cheated the government authorities and in the process enabled Vivo, India (controlled by Vivo, China) acquire huge wrongful gains for themselves to the ”detriment of economic sovereignty of the country”, the ED said.

An e-mail sent to Lava International, a domestic mobile device manufacturing company, for its reaction did not elicit an immediate response. Lava International claims to have 1-2 per cent share in the smartphone market.

A Vivo spokesperson said the company ”firmly adheres to its ethical principles and remains dedicated to legal compliance. The recent arrest deeply concerns us. We will exercise all available legal options”.

In July last year, the agency had raided Vivo and people linked with the firm, claiming to have busted a major money laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian companies.

The ED had then alleged that a whopping Rs 62,476 crore was ”illegally” transferred by Vivo to China in order to avoid payment of taxes in India. The crackdown on the leading Chinese company came after the federal probe agency found that three Chinese nationals — all of whom ”left” India during 2018-21 –and another person from that country incorporated 23 companies in India in which they were also allegedly helped by CA Nitin Garg.

These 23 companies are found to have transferred huge amounts of funds to Vivo India. Further, out of the total sale proceeds of Rs 1,25,185 crore, Vivo India remitted Rs 62,476 crore or almost 50 per cent of the turnover out of India, mainly to China, the ED had alleged.

These remittances, it added, were made in order to ”disclose huge losses in Indian incorporated companies to avoid payment of taxes in India.” The action is seen as part of the Union government’s effort to tighten checks on Chinese entities that are allegedly indulging in serious financial crimes like money laundering and tax evasion while operating here. It is also being seen as continued crackdown on such firms and their linked Indian operatives.

These developments also come even as the military stand-off between the two countries along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh has been ongoing for more than three years now.

Vivo, post the ED searches of July 5, 2022, had said it was ”a responsible corporate and was committed to be fully compliant with laws.” The agency said it followed ”all due procedures as per law” during the raids conducted under the criminal sections of the PMLA, but the ”employees of Vivo India, including some Chinese nationals, did not cooperate with the search proceedings and tried to abscond, remove and hide digital devices which were retrieved by the search teams.”

The ED also said that after the raids, it seized funds worth Rs 465 crore kept in 119 bank accounts by various entities involved in the case, Rs 73 lakh in cash and 2 kg gold bars.

The agency filed an enforcement case information report (ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR, on February 3 after studying a Delhi Police FIR (Kalkaji police station) of December last year against a associated company of Vivo, Grand Prospect International Communication Pvt Ltd (GPICPL), its directors, shareholders and some others professionals.

The police complaint was filed by the Corporate Affairs Ministry alleging that GPICPL and its shareholders used ”forged” identification documents and ”falsified” addresses at the time of incorporation of the company in December, 2014. This company had its registered address in Solan (Himachal Pradesh), Gandhinagar (Gujarat) and Jammu (J&K).

The three Chinese nationals, mentioned above, incorporated this company while a fourth one, Zhixin Wei, also opened four companies to carry out similar transactions.

”The allegations (made by the Corporate Affairs ministry) were found to be true as the investigation revealed that the addresses mentioned by the directors of GPICPL did not belong to them, but in fact it was a government building and house of a senior bureaucrat,” the ED said.

It said Vivo Mobiles Pvt Ltd was incorporated on August 1, 2014 as a subsidiary of Multi Accord Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company.