Following ED raid, Sequoia Capital releases statement denying allegations of involvement in Aircel-Maxis deal

In a bid to put to rest the varying and confusing media reports on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raiding Sequoia Capital premises in connection to the Aircel-Maxis deal, Sequoia Capital released an official statement. It said:

Contrary to media reports, Sequoia Capital India has absolutely no association with companies like Aircel or Maxis. Our only connection to the ED visit is that Sequoia Capital India is a minority investor in Vasan, which is one out of the 100 plus investments made in India over the last 10 years.

This morning, Sequoia also posted the below statement on its Twitter page:

The official statement added that Sequoia first came to know of the investigation into Vasan Healthcare through an article published on September 17, 2015, after which it claims to have taken prompt steps.

The statement said that VT Bharadwaj, Managing Director of Sequoia, and who was on the Vasan Healthcare board of directors, demanded that the management at Vasan conduct a thorough investigation on the allegations. VT Bharadwaj also resigned from Vasan's board on November 18, last year. While not on the board, Sequoia continues to be minority investors at Vasan.

“Sequoia Capital India has fully supported the regulatory investigation, has adopted a policy of complete transparency and full compliance with that investigation, and continues to dutifully respond to all inquiries received to date. During the course of this investigation, the Sequoia Capital India team has met the ED officials multiple times and has answered every query placed before us. We adopted the same approach yesterday during the ED visit to our offices,” the official statement says.

The story of Vasan Healthcare is fraught with political drama, tax evasions, black money and debt. There are several allegations against AM Arun, Founder of Vasan Healthcare, for his association with Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Minister of Finance P. Chidambaram. Reports allege that Karti used Vasan Healthcare to launder black money. While the former Union Minister denied all the allegations, raids were conducted in September last year.