Income Tax raids Chinese entities for money laundering/hawala transactions

Income Tax Department conducts search on premises of Chinese entities

As per a Press Release issued by Finance Ministry, the Income Tax Department, based on the credible information that few Chinese individuals and their Indian associates were involved in money laundering and hawala transactions through series of shell entities, conducted a search operation at various premises of these Chinese entities, their close confederates and couple of bank employees.

Search action revealed that at the behest of Chinese individuals, more than 40 bank accounts were created in various dummy entities, entering into credits of more than Rs 1,000 Crore over the period.

A subsidiary of Chinese company and its related concerns have taken over Rs 100 Crore bogus advances from shell entities for opening businesses of retail showrooms in India.

Further, incriminating documents in respect of hawala transactions and laundering of money with active involvement of bank employees and Chartered accountants has been found as a result of search action.

Evidences of foreign hawala transactions involving Hongkong and US dollars have also been unearthed. Further investigations are under progress.

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