A Chinese national is among the four accused arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on the charges of money laundering. The accused have been identified as Guangwen Kyang aka Andrew Kuang, the Chinese National; Hari Om Rai, the MD of Lava International; Rajan Malik, and Nitin Garg, a Chartered Accountant.
The arrest comes amid the ongoing investigation into the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case into the Chinese mobile company Vivo. The central agency also seized more than Rs 10 lakh in cash. The accused will likely be produced before a court where the ED will seek their custody.
Enforcement Directorate has arrested four accused including a Chinese national linked with Chinese mobile company Vivo under PMLA Act. ED conducted raids on the premises of accused on 9th October and seized cash amounting to more than Rs 10 lakhs and arrested four accused who…
— ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2023
On 7th July 2022, the ED cracked a large-scale money laundering scam involving Chinese companies and multiple Indian firms. The agency had said that smartphone maker Vivo “illegally” sent Rs 62,476 crore to China in order to avoid paying taxes on that money in India.
The investigation agency discovered that four Chinese nationals, three of whom “left” India between the years 2018 and 2021, formed up to 23 business entities in India with the assistance of Chartered Accountant Nitin Garg.
One of the foreigners, who went under the name of Bin Lou, was a former Vivo director who according to ED, departed India in April 2018. Zhengshen Ou and Zhang Jie fled the country in 2021.
The ED had reportedly said in a statement, “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 percent of the turnover out of India, mainly to China. These remittances were made in order to disclose huge losses in Indian incorporated companies to avoid payment of taxes in India.”
On 5th July 2022, the ED conducted raids at as many as 44 locations across the country linked to the Chinese mobile company Vivo. The searches were conducted in a money-laundering investigation against the Chinese smartphone manufacturing company.
In May, the Indian units of ZTE Corp., a Chinese partially state-owned technology company, and Vivo Mobile Communications Co. had come under the scanner for alleged financial irregularities.
