India is currently investigating a major tax evasion case involving the UK-based insurance company Aviva, which has been accused of being part of a large-scale conspiracy to evade taxes. Here's what we know so far:

Between 2017 and 2023, Aviva’s Indian branch reportedly paid around $26 million to different vendors, supposedly for marketing and training services. However, authorities are now saying these payments were fake. The vendors, it seems, didn’t actually provide any services at all. Instead, they acted as middlemen to secretly funnel money to Aviva’s insurance agents.

This tricky scheme helped Aviva illegally avoid paying around $5.2 million in taxes, according to a notice sent by India’s Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), the agency responsible for investigating tax violations. To make things even worse, senior officials at Aviva were allegedly aware of this scheme all along. Despite this, Aviva has so far refused to make any public comments on the inves...