New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) may question a bureaucrat and few government officials on whose address a Chinese national and an ex-director of Vivo, had incorporated a firm.
The Chinese national had intentionally provided address of Solan, Himachal Pradesh and Gandhinagar, Jammu, and one of the addresses was found to be a government building and of a senior bureaucrat.
Chinese smartphone company Vivo’s top executives, directors Zhengshen Ou and Zhang Jie, had fled from India via Nepal. The ED has learnt that the firm was involved in huge Hawala transactions.
In February this year, the ED initiated a money laundering case against them on the basis of an FIR lodged with Kalkaji Police Station of Delhi under sections 417, 120B and 420 of IPC, 1860 against Grand Prospect International Communication Private Limited (GPICPL) and its Director, shareholders and certifying professionals etc on the basis of complaint filed by Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
As per the FIR, GPICPL and its shareholders had used forged identification documents and falsified addresses at the time of incorporation. The allegations 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 has said that out of the total sale proceeds of Rs 1,25,185 crores, Vivo India remitted Rs 62,476 crores. i.e, almost 50 per cent of the turnover out of India, mainly to China.
A senior ED official said that on July 5 they carried out searchs at 48 locations spanning across the country belonging to VIVO Mobiles India Private Limited and its 23 associated companies such as GPICPL.
Vivo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd was incorporated on August 1, 2014 as a subsidiary of Multi Accord Ltd, a Hong Kong based company and was registered at ROC Delhi. GPICPL was registered on December 3, 2014 at ROC Shimla, with registered addresses of Solan, Himachal Pradesh and Gandhinagar, Jammu.
The said company was incorporated by Zhengshen Ou, Bin Lou and Zhang Jie with the help of one Nitin Garg, a Chartered Accountant (CA).
Lou left India on April 26, 2018 whereas Ou and Jie left India in 2021.
ED’s investigation revealed that the same director of GPICPL, Lou, was also an ex-director of Vivo. He had incorporated multiple companies across the country spread across various states.
A total of 18 companies around the same time, just after the incorporation of Vivo in the year 2014-15 and further another Chinese National Zhixin Wei had incorporated further 4 companies.
“These entities are Rui Chuang Technologies Private Limited (Ahmedabad), V Dream Technology & Communication Private Ltd (Hyderabad), Regenvo Mobile Private Limited (Lucknow), Fangs Technology Private Limited (Chennai), Weiwo Communication Private Limited (Bangalore), Bubugao Communication Private Limited (Jaipur), Haicheng Mobile (India) Private Limited (New Delhi), Joinmay Mumbai Electronics Pvt. Ltd (Mumbai), Yingjia Communication Private Limited (Kolkata), Jie Lian Mobile India Pvt. Ltd. (Indore), Vigour Mobile India Private Limited (Gurgaon), Hisoa Electronic Private Limited (Pune), Haijin Trade India Private Limited (Kochi), Rongsheng Mobile India Private Limited (Guwahati), Morefun Communication Private Limited (Patna), Aohua Mobile India Private Limited (Raipur), Pioneer Mobile Private Limited (Bhubhaneswar), Unimay Electronic Private Limited (Nagpur), Junwei Electronic Private Limited (Aurangabad), Huijin Electronic India Private Limited (Ranchi), MGM Sales Private Limited (Dehradun), Joinmay Electronic Pvt Ltd (Mumbai),” the ED said.
The ED said that these companies were found to have transferred huge amount of funds to Vivo India. Further, out of the total sale proceeds of Rs 1,25,185 crores, Vivo India remitted Rs 62,476 crores. i.e, almost 50 per cent 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.
All due procedures as per law were followed during the said operations at each premise.
The employees of Vivo India, including some Chinese Nationals did not cooperate with the search proceedings and had tried to abscond, remove and hide digital devices which were retrieved by the search teams.
So far, 119 bank accounts of various entities with gross balance to the tune of Rs 465 crore including FDs to the tune of 66 crores of Vivo India, 2 kg gold bars, and cash amount to the tune of approximately Rs 73 lakh have been seized under the provisions of PMLA, 2002.
