The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it has attached fresh assets worth more than Rs 1,452 crore as part of a money laundering investigation against businessman Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group.
A provisional order issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has attached multiple buildings located in the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai and Millennium Business Park in Navi Mumbai, along with plots and buildings in Pune, Chennai and Bhubaneswar.
According to the agency, these properties are valued at Rs 1,452.51 crore and belong to Reliance Communications Ltd and others.
The federal agency had earlier attached properties worth Rs 7,500 crore in the same case that involves allegations of bank loan fraud and financial irregularities.
With the latest order, the total attachment of assets in money laundering cases against the Reliance Group has risen to Rs 8,997 crore.
Reliance Group clarified in a statement that the attached assets relate solely to Reliance Communications (RCOM), under Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process and independent of the Group since 2019. The order does not affect Reliance Infrastructure or Reliance Power, which continue normal operations. Anil Ambani holds no role in RCOM, per the statement.
According to the ED, RCOM and its group companies availed loans from domestic and foreign lenders between 2010 and 2012, leaving an outstanding amount of Rs 40,185 crore.
The agency said nine banks have declared the loan accounts of the Group as fraud. It alleged that loans taken by one entity from one bank were used for the repayment of loans taken by other entities from other banks, for transfers to related parties, and for investments in mutual funds in violation of the terms and conditions of the sanction letters.
The ED probe found that Reliance Communications and its group firms diverted over Rs 13,600 crore for the evergreening of loans.
More than Rs 12,600 crore was allegedly diverted to connected parties and over Rs 1,800 crore invested in fixed deposits and mutual funds that were substantially liquidated for routing funds back to group entities.
The agency said it has also detected large-scale misuse of bill discounting for funnelling funds to connected parties. It further claimed that certain loans were siphoned off outside India through foreign outward remittances.
Anil Ambani was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in August in connection with this case. The agency has also summoned him in a separate foreign exchange violation matter.
The investigation remains ongoing and the ED is expected to issue further details on the nature of the attached assets and their link to the transactions under scrutiny.
With inputs from PTI