Vedanta – The Secret Enforcement Directorate Meeting

Author: Viceroy Research Published on: July 30, 2025 Published in: Vedanta (NSE:VEDL)

July 30, 2025 – Since our first report on Vedanta Resources (VRL), dozens of whistleblowers including former employees, advisors, and counterparties have come forward, corroborating and expanding on the mechanisms used to extract value from Vedanta Limited (VEDL).

These firsthand accounts are eye-opening, revealing a deeply compromised system, where regulatory oversight has been circumvented, investors deliberately misled, and basic fiduciary responsibilities ignored.

In July 2023, India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Vedanta Limited’s CEO and CFO regarding improper brand fee payments to its parent, Vedanta Resources Limited. The ED is rightfully the most feared of India’s financial investigators and, according to the colorful language of one observer, the “Leadership s**t their pants”.

CEO Sunil Duggal refused to even appear, leaving the newly-appointed CFO, Sonal Shrivastava, to attend the interview with Ajay Agarwal, a non-board member of the executive committee.

Brand fees were supposed to be solely paid at the start of the financial year, but this was not the case. Whenever VRL faced a liquidity crunch it triggered ad hoc remittances from VEDL under the banner of brand fees. These ad hoc payments were what originally drew the attention of the ED.

The ED found the brand fees unjustified under FEMA and corporate governance norms. To avoid immediate enforcement action, VRL agreed to rebate ₹1,030 crore ($123m) to VEDL, while auditors were kept in the dark.

Sonal Shrivastava attended the AGM, the ED interview, and then promptly resigned in October 2023, only 5 months after joining.

Since then, VRL has instituted year-end “refunds” of brand fee overpayments to its subsidiaries, quietly acknowledging the fee structure’s non-compliance. These facts have not been disclosed to bondholders or the market.

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