In a major action in the bank fraud case linked to Reliance Anil Ambani Group, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached over 18 properties, including fixed deposits, bank balances and shares in unquoted investments. The total value of the attached assets is approximately ₹1,120 crore. This action is related to Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL) and Yes Bank fraud cases.
Attached properties include:
The attached properties include seven properties of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, two properties of Reliance Power Ltd, nine properties of Reliance Value Services Pvt Ltd, Reliance Value Services Pvt Ltd, Reliance Venture Asset Management Pvt Ltd, M/s Phi Management Solutions Pvt Ltd, M/s Aadhaar Property Consultancy Pvt Ltd and M/s Games Investments. Includes fixed deposits and bank balances held in the name of Management Private Limited. In addition, shares in unquoted investments have also been attached.
Assets worth ₹10,117 crore have been attached so far
It is noteworthy that ED had earlier also attached assets worth more than ₹8,997 crore in bank fraud cases related to RCOM, RCFL and RHFL. With this new action, the total attached assets of the group have increased to ₹10,117 crore. According to the ED investigation, several Anil Ambani group companies like Reliance Communications Limited, Reliance Home Finance Limited, Reliance Commercial Finance Limited, Reliance Infrastructure Limited and Reliance Power Limited misused public funds on a large scale.
What is the allegation of ED?
The investigation revealed that during 2017-2019, Yes Bank invested ₹2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and ₹2,045 crore in RCFL instruments, which later became NPAs. As of December 2019, the outstanding balance of RHFL was ₹1,353.50 crore and the outstanding balance of RCFL was ₹1,984 crore. Additionally, RHFL and RCFL received public funds totaling more than ₹11,000 crore, which were transferred to Anil Ambani group companies through complex financial channels.
SEBI rules were ignored. Due to SEBI regulations, Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund could not invest directly in these companies, so the funds were routed through Yes Bank to the group companies. Based on the FIR registered by CBI, ED has also started investigation against RCOM, Anil Ambani and others.
According to the investigation, between 2010 and 2012, the group took large loans from domestic and foreign banks with an outstanding balance of ₹40,185 crore, which nine banks have declared as frauds. Many companies used loans taken from one bank to repay loans from another bank, transferred them to related parties and invested in mutual funds, which was in violation of the loan terms.
The ED found that ‘evergreening of loans’ amounting to about Rs 13,600 crore was used to send Rs 12,600 crore to related parties and Rs 1,800 crore to be invested in fixed deposits/MFs and subsequently sent to group companies. Some funds were also sent out of India through foreign remittances. ED said it will continue to crack down on financial criminals and is committed to returning public money to its rightful owners. Further investigation is ongoing.
