In a significant enforcement action, India\u2019s\u00a0Enforcement Directorate (ED)<\/strong>\u00a0conducted\u00a0raids at eight locations in Bengaluru<\/strong>\u00a0on March 18, 2025. These sites are linked to\u00a0George Soros\u2019 Open Society Foundations (OSF)<\/strong>\u00a0and its investment arm, the\u00a0Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF)<\/strong>. The investigation targets alleged contraventions under the\u00a0Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The ED\u2019s preliminary findings suggest that since 2016, OSF had been categorized under\u00a0India\u2019s \u201cPrior Reference Category\u201d<\/strong>\u2014meaning any funding for Indian NGOs required prior approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs. To allegedly circumvent these restrictions, OSF and SEDF are believed to have funneled funds into the country via\u00a0subsidiaries<\/strong>, disguising them as\u00a0FDI or consultancy fees<\/strong>, which were then distributed to various NGOs.<\/p>\n The probe includes at least\u00a0three Indian firms<\/strong>\u2014Rootbridge Services Pvt Ltd, Rootbridge Academy Pvt Ltd, and ASAR Social Impact Advisors\u2014that allegedly received funds from SEDF totaling approximately\u00a0\u20b925 crore<\/strong>\u00a0between 2020 and 2024. In some cases, funds were transferred through mechanisms like\u00a0compulsorily convertible preference shares<\/strong>, or labeled as service fees despite no clear services being rendered.<\/p>\n Additionally, the ED also raided premises linked to\u00a0Aspada Investments Pvt Ltd<\/strong>, a Mauritius-based fund manager set up to handle SEDF\u2019s investments in India\u2014accumulating nearly\u00a0\u20b9300 crore<\/strong> across over a dozen Indian firms.<\/p>\n Some of the raided locations are connected to\u00a0NGOs and human rights organizations<\/strong>, including individuals formerly associated with\u00a0Amnesty International India<\/strong>\u00a0and employees of\u00a0Human Rights Watch<\/strong>, both of which previously received support from OSF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" India\u2019s ED Raids George Soros\u2013Linked Entities in FEMA Probe In a significant enforcement action, India\u2019s\u00a0Enforcement Directorate (ED)\u00a0conducted\u00a0raids at eight locations in Bengaluru\u00a0on March 18, 2025. These sites… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat ED Is Investigating<\/h3>\n
Entities Under Scrutiny<\/h3>\n
Broader Context<\/h3>\n