A property at Pali Hill, popularly known as Ambani Family’s residence, land of Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai, Reliance Centre in New Delhi and multiple properties linked to entities of Reliance Anil Ambani Group with combined worth over Rs 7,545 crore have been provisionally attached by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) as part of alleged money laundering probe against the group, the agency said.
The ED said on Monday its special task force has provisionally attached over 132 acres of land in Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai worth Rs 4,462.81 crore. The enforcement agency also attached 30 properties of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, five properties of Adhar Property Consultancy, four properties of Mohanbir Hi-tech Build, one property each of Gamesa Investment Management, Vihaan43 Realty (earlier known as M/s Kunjbihari Developers) and property of Campion Properties. Around 43 properties linked to the group in East Godavari, Pune and Thane, Mumbai, Noida, Delhi, Hyderabad, East Godavari and Goa were attached by the agency. Land parcels at Ghaziabad/Noida and 29 flats in Chennai (Adyar/OMR-Kottivakkam) valued at Rs 109.61 crore (equivalent value) were also attached, the agency said. The ED said four orders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act were issued on October 31 to carry-out attachment exercises.
In a statement on Monday, Reliance Infrastructure stated that “there is no impact on the business operations, shareholders, employees or any other stakeholders” of the company. “Anil D. Ambani is not on the Board of Reliance Infrastructure for more than 3.5 years, the company added.
The ED’s action comes in the alleged bank fraud cases of Reliance Communications Ltd.(RCOM), Reliance Home Finance Ltd. (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd. (RCFL).
The agency said Yes Bank invested Rs 2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and Rs 2,045 crore in RCFL instruments during 2017–2019. “These turned into non-performing investments by December 2019, with Rs 1,353.50 crore then outstanding for RHFL and Rs 1,984 crore for RCFL,” the ED said.
The ED probe found that RHFL and RCFL received public funds of more than Rs 10,000 crore. “A large amount came from Yes Bank. Before Yes Bank invested this money in Reliance Anil Ambani group companies, Yes Bank had received huge funds from erstwhile Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund. As per Securities and Exchange Board of India regulations, Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund could not invest/divert funds directly in Anil Ambani group finance companies due to conflict-of-interest rules. Therefore, public money in mutual fund schemes was routed indirectly by them through Yes Bank’s exposures. The public funds reached Anil Ambani group companies through circuitous route,” the ED said.
So far, ED has detected “fraudulent diversion” of public money by various Anil Ambani group companies including RCFL, RHFL, RIL and Reliance Power.
“From around 2010-12 onwards, RCOM and its group companies raised thousands of crore from Indian banks, of which a total amount of Rs 40,185 crore is outstanding. Five banks have declared loan accounts of the group as fraud,” the ED noted. The agency said that RCOM and its group companies diverted over Rs 13,600 crore used in evergreening loans, over Rs 12,600 crore was diverted to the associated companies and over Rs 1,800 crore was invested in fixed deposits and mutual funds, which was substantially liquidated for rerouting to group entities.
