Vivo money laundering case: ED accuses firm of Visa violation, siphoning off $13 billion

Vivo money laundering case: The Enforcement Directorate has said that many Vivo employees and its Indian affliates have concealed their employment details while seeking visas and that $12.87 billion was remitted outside India by Vivo.

Visa Trouble

As per ED, at least 30 Chinese individuals who entered India on a Business Visa and worked as Vivo employees, never disclosed in their application that they are employees of that firm. The ED also stated that some of these individuals breached rules by visiting the "sensitive" Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Various Chinese nationals have been traveling across India, including sensitive places of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, in gross violation of Indian visa conditions," the court filing said.

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Siphoned Money

The ED further mentions that Vivo remitted the money to some trading companies controlled by its Chinese parent and called it a masking layer intended to escape government notice.

"While no profits were shown from 2014-15 to 2019-20 in the statutory filings and no income taxes were paid ... huge sums were siphoned off out of India,"

Earlier this week, ED had arrested Vivo executive, Guangwen Kuang, in a money laundering investigation that was launched in 2022.