The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday carried out searches at three premises in Bengaluru linked to Byju Raveendran, the chief executive officer of online education portal Byju’s.

The searches were conducted under provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, the Enforcement Directorate wrote in a tweet. “Various incriminating documents and digital data” were seized during the searches, the central agency said.

The searches found that the company had received foreign direct investments to the tune of Rs 28,000 crore between 2011 and 2023, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement. The company also remitted Rs 9,754 crore to various foreign countries during the period.

“The company has booked around Rs 944 Crore in the name of advertisement and marketing expenses including the amount remitted to foreign jurisdiction,” the Enforcement Directorate statement added.

The central agency also said that Byju’s its financial statements since financial year 2020-’21 and has not conducted an audit of its accounts. Raveendran Byju did not appear before the Enforcement Directorate during the investigation even as several summons were issued, the statement also noted.

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Founded in 2011, Byju’s, a Bengaluru-based startup launched its online learning app in 2015. In its financial statement for the year 2020-’21, the company posted a consolidated loss of over Rs 4,500 crore, the highest ever by an Indian start-up. The financial statement was released in September, after an 18-month delay, following compliance-related concerns flagged by the company’s auditor Deloitte.