India agency sends notices to Deutsche, HSBC, Citi in Xiaomi royalty case
Adds details from financial crime agency in paragraphs 6 and 7
By Aditya Kalra and Shubhendu Deshmukh
NEW DELHI, June 9 (Reuters) -India's financial crime agency on Friday said notices had been issued to Xiaomi 1810.HK, Deutsche Bank DBKGn.DE, HSBC HSBA.L and Citigroup C.N over alleged illegal remittances made by the Chinese smartphone giant to foreign entities.
An appellate authority at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued the so-called show cause notices under India's foreign exchange laws for alleged illegal remittances of 55.51 billion rupees ($673.2 million). The funds have been frozen by the agency since last year.
Show cause notices are typically issued to a company to ask it why the federal agency should not proceed to take action against it for wrongdoing.
Xiaomi and the three banks did not respond to requests for comment.
India alleges Xiaomi's local unit made illegal remittances to foreign entities by passing them off as royalty payments. The Chinese company has previously said those payments were all legitimate and that it will "continue to use all means to protect the reputation and interests".
The notices were issued to Xiaomi and officials including the chief financial officer of its India unit, the ED said in a statement.
The banks received notices because they allegedly allowed foreign remittances described as royalty payments without conducting due diligence and obtaining necessary documentation, the agency added.
Reuters reported last year Indian investigators had alleged during their probe that Xiaomi misled its banker Deutsche for years by claiming it had an agreement for payment of royalties when it had none.
Court documents show Xiaomi's frozen assets are spread across accounts at various banks including Deutsche, Citi and HSBC.
The Chinese company is one of India's leading smartphone players, having grown rapidly in recent years by offering budget smartphones. It competes with Samsung Electronics 005930.KS and other Chinese brands in the booming South Asian market.
Xiaomi last year told a court that the asset freeze was "severely disproportionate" and had effectively halted its operations in India. In April, an Indian court rejected Xiaomi's request to lift the freeze.
Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Shubhendu Deshmukh; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Jamie Freed
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
