Bengaluru, March 18 The sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) began conducting raids in Bengaluru against George Soros’ Foundation and linked NGOs at eight locations on Tuesday under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
Sources in the ED stated, “The ED Delhi is conducting searches under FEMA, 1999 at 8 premises in Bengaluru to investigate the FEMA contraventions by Soros Economic Development Fund (EDF) and Open Source Foundation (OSF).”
The Soros EDF is the impact investment arm of the OSF.
George Soros is a Hungarian-American billionaire philanthropist who criticised the government of India in his speech ahead of the Munich Security Conference.
The BJP has accused Soros of acting against the national interests of India.
Preliminary investigation by ED has revealed that OSF, a US-based grantmaking network that claims support to civil society groups globally, aiming to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media, was put under Prior Reference Category by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in 2016, thereby restricting it from giving unregulated donations to NGOs in India.
In order to bypass this restriction, OSF's subsidiaries in India brought in funds in the form of FDI and consultancy fees and these funds have been used to fund activities of the NGOs which is a FEMA contravention, sources stated.
The ED is also examining the end use of other FDI funds brought in by Soros EDF and OSF.
ED searches also include search on M/s Aspada Investments Pvt Ltd which is the investment advisor/fund manager of Soros EDF in India and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Mauritius entity, sources said.
Amnesty India has also been charge sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The ED has taken up a case against the Human Rights Watch, which allegedly received funds from OSF.
The present raids by the ED are part of an ongoing FEMA case. In 2022, Amnesty’s India chief, Aakar Patel was fined Rs 10 crore and the NGO was fined Rs 51.72 crore for violating the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
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