On April 30, ED had seized Rs 5,551.27 crore of Xiaomi Technology India Private Limited under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).
New Delhi: In a case linked to money laundering case linked to an alleged fertiliser scam and payment of Rs 685 crore as kickbacks, Enforcement Directorate on Friday attached Rs 20.96 crore assets belonging to IFFCO MD U S Awasthi. According to reports, the probe agency attached residential properties of the IFFCO MD in three states.
The agency said that assets were attached in Delhi’s Hauz Khas Enclave area, Hayrana’s Gurugram and Himachal Pradesh. The action was taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after issuing a provisional order in this regard. The agency issued order on Thursday and the properties are valued at Rs 20.96 crore.
As per the statement, it has been investigated that the IFFCO MD along with several other generated proceeds of crime and layered it through various unrelated entities and part of this was then transferred to the entities controlled by Awasthi and others.
On April 30, ED had seized Rs 5,551.27 crore of Xiaomi Technology India Private Limited under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act,1999 (FEMA). The move came days after the agency questioned Xiaomi’s global vice-president Manu Kumar Jain for the alleged forex violations by the company.
Also Read: ED seizes assets of Xiaomi worth Rs 5,521 crore under FEMA rules
In a tweet, the agency had twitted, “ED has seized Rs.5551.27 Crore of M/s Xiaomi Technology India Private Limited lying in the bank accounts under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 in connection with the illegal outward remittances made by the company.”
In a press note, the ED had said, “The company started its operations in India in the year 2014 and started remitting the money from the year 2015. The company has remitted foreign currency equivalent to INR 5551.27 crore to three foreign based entities which include one Xiaomi group entity in the guise of Royalty. Such huge amounts in the name of Royalties were remitted on the instructions of their Chinese parent group entities. The amount remitted to other two US based unrelated entities was also for the ultimate benefit of the Xiaomi group entities.”
