The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached fresh assets worth over Rs 1,800 crore from companies linked to Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani, according to a report by PTI. The action is part of the agency’s ongoing alleged money laundering investigation.
With this latest action, the total value of assets attached by the federal probe agency in the case now stands at nearly Rs 12,000 crore, as per PTI report. The PTI report detailed out that the attached properties are in the form of shareholding of Reliance Infrastructure and BSES Yamuna Power, BSES Rajdhani Power and Mumbai Metro One.
Four provisional orders issued under PMLA
According to PTI, The ED said it has issued four separate provisional attachment orders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The attached assets include bank deposits, shareholdings in unlisted companies and several immovable properties.
The attachments have been done in the cases related to Reliance Home Finance (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance (RCFL), Yes Bank “fraud” as well as an alleged fraud involving Reliance Communication.
Bank deposits, receivables and personal assets attached
The agency said it provisionally attached bank deposits worth Rs 148 crore and receivables amounting to Rs 143 crore held by Value Corp Finance and Securities.
It also attached a residential house registered in the name of senior company executive Angarai Sethuraman, along with shares and mutual fund investments belonging to another senior employee, Puneet Garg.The total value of the fresh attachment stands at Rs 1,885 crore, the ED said, according to PTI.
The Anil Ambani group companies have denied any wrongdoing in the past.
ED alleges diversion of public funds
The ED said it detected alleged “fraudulent diversion” of public money by several Anil Ambani group companies, including Reliance Communications, RHFL, RCFL, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power.
During 2017–2019, Yes Bank invested Rs 2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and Rs 2,045 crore in RCFL, the agency said.By December 2019, these investments turned non-performing, with outstanding amounts of Rs 1,353.5 crore for RHFL and Rs 1,984 crore for RCFL.
RHFL and RCFL received public funds of more than Rs 11,000 crore, as per the ED.
“Before Yes Bank invested this money in Reliance Anil Ambani group companies, Yes Bank had received huge funds from erstwhile Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund,” the agency said.
As per SEBI rules, the mutual fund could not invest directly in Anil Ambani group companies due to conflict-of-interest norms. The ED alleged that public money was therefore routed indirectly through Yes Bank’s exposure.
The agency said it is also probing RCom, Anil Ambani and others after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR.
RCom and its group companies took loans from domestic and foreign lenders starting 2010–12, with total outstanding dues of Rs 40,185 crore.
Nine banks have declared the group’s loan accounts as fraud, the ED claimed.
“RCom and its group companies diverted over Rs 13,600 crore for evergreening of loans, over Rs 12,600 crore was diverted to connected parties and over Rs 1,800 crore was invested in FDs and mutual funds,” the ED said according to PTI.
It added that a large portion of these funds was later liquidated and rerouted to group entities.
The agency also flagged misuse of bill discounting and alleged that certain loans were siphoned off overseas through foreign remittances.