NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian tax authorities raided the property of several Chinese entities and their staff for money laundering, according to an official statement late Tuesday, adding to New Delhi’s growing discomfort with Beijing following a border crash in June.
Since the clash, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has taken steps such as banning some Chinese mobile phone apps, and tightening the requirements for Chinese investment and participation in government offers.
The statement did not provide details on the timing of the raids or on the type of ‘named entities’.
Chinese individuals, their allies and a few bank employees were involved in money laundering through a series of shell companies, the statement said.
“Search action revealed that at the request of Chinese individuals, more than 40 bank accounts were created in various dummy entities, entering credits of more than 10 billion rupees ($ 134.03 million) during the period,” the statement said.
During the raid, authorities found evidence of transactions involving Hong Kong and US dollars.
The statement said that one of the subsidiaries of a Chinese company and its related concerns had taken more than 1 billion Indian rupees ($ 13.4 million) in false progress from shell entities, again to ‘retail showrooms’ in To open India.
The statement did not mention the names of the companies as Chinese individuals involved in money laundering and “hawala” money transactions, which allow customers to quickly move large sums of money across borders without control of regulators.
“Further investigations are underway,” it added.
($ 1 = 74.6100 Indian Rupees)
Report by Nidhi Verma; Edited by Bernadette Baum
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