Anil Ambani
ED is tightening its grip on Anil Ambani and his group. The Enforcement Directorate has once again seized more than 18 of his properties worth Rs 1,120 crore. The ED has provisionally attached over 18 properties, fixed deposits, bank balances and shareholdings in unquoted investments worth Rs 1,120 crore of Reliance Anil Ambani Group in the Reliance Home Finance Ltd, Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd, Yes Bank fraud case.
7 properties of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd., 2 properties of Reliance Power Ltd., 9 properties of Reliance Value Service Pvt. Ltd., Reliance Value Service Pvt. Ltd., Reliance Venture Asset Management Pvt. Ltd., M/s Fee Management Solutions Pvt. Ltd., M/s Aadhar Property Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., M/s Gamesa Investment Management Pvt. Ltd. and further investments made in unquoted investments by M/s Reliance Venture Asset Management Pvt. Ltd. and M/s. Fee Management Solutions Pvt. Ltd. have been seized.
Action has been taken earlier also
Even before this, ED had seized properties worth more than Rs 50 crore. Bank fraud cases involving Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM), Reliance Commercial Finance Limited, and Reliance Home Finance Limited involved an investment of Rs 8,997 crore. Hence, the total group allocation reached Rs 10,117 crore. ED has detected fraud of public money by several companies of Reliance Anil Ambani Group, including Reliance Communications Limited, Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL), Reliance Infrastructure Limited (RIL) and Reliance Power Limited (RHFL).
Also read- Anil Ambani faces one trouble after another, now assets worth Rs 1400 crore seized
When is the matter?
During 2017-2019, Yes Bank had invested Rs 2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and Rs 2,045 crore in RCFL instruments. By December 2019, these became non-performing investments. The dues for RHFL were Rs 1,353.50 crore and for RCFL was Rs 1,984 crore. ED’s investigation into the case of RHFL and RCFL reveals that RHFL and RCFL received public money worth more than Rs 11,000 crore. Before Yes Bank invested this money in Reliance Anil Ambani group companies, Yes Bank had received huge funds from the erstwhile Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund.
As per SEBI rules, Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund could not divert direct investments in Anil Ambani group finance companies due to conflict of interest rules. Therefore, public money was routed indirectly by them into mutual fund schemes. This path ran through the risks of Yes Bank. Public money reached Anil Ambani group companies through a circuitous route. ED has also initiated investigation on the basis of FIR registered by CBI against RCom, Anil Ambani and others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1989. Rs 40,185 crore are outstanding. 9 banks have declared the group’s loan account as fraud.
This is the allegation
ED’s investigation revealed that the loan taken by one entity from one bank was used by another entity to repay loans taken from other banks, transfer it to related parties and invest in mutual funds, which was against the terms of the loan sanction letter. Specifically, RCOM and its group companies diverted more than 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, mutual funds, etc., which were largely liquidated to reroute them to the group entity. ED has also detected large scale misuse of bill discounting for the purpose of transferring funds to connected parties.