NEW DELHI: The trouble facing the Chinese mobile manufacturuer Vivo seem to be worsening, with ED claiming that the former chief of its operations, Bin Lou, had floated at least 18 subsidiaries of the company on the basis of forged documents.
There were also indications that the agencies could be looking into the disproportionate scale of Vivo’s operations in sensitive border regions, including J&K and Himachal Pradesh.
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The ED said it is looking into suspicious transactions of over Rs 62,000 crore which were remitted by the company to China from the Rs 1.25 lakh crore of receipts from its Indian operations since 2014. ED’s statement came a day after Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said “Beijing is closely following developments inan ongoing investigation related to Vivo mobile and some other Chinese firms.”
In another statement, Chinese embassy here said that “multiple investigations by Indian agencies are damaging the confidence of foreign entities investing and operating in the country”.
“All due procedures as per law were followed during the said operations. 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,” the ED said
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An MEA spokesperson, said companies doing business here will have to comply with the law of the land
The ED said the addresses declared (by the directors) did not belong to them. “In fact it was a government building and house of a senior bureaucrat.” (MSN)
