The Enforcement Directorate has attached fresh assets worth ₹1,452 crore linked to industrialist Anil Ambani in connection with its ongoing money laundering probe into alleged loan fraud to the tune of ₹7,500 crore by group companies, sources said on Thursday.
With the latest action, the cumulative attachment of properties belonging to the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has gone up to nearly ₹9,000 crore. The latest seizures have been made in a case involving alleged diversion and laundering of public funds by Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL).
Sources said the assets attached on Thursday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were spread across Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and Bhubaneswar.
The agency had earlier attached properties worth ₹7,500 crore, including 132 acres of land within the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai valued at ₹4,500 crore, Anil Ambani’s house in Mumbai’s Pali Hill, a Reliance Centre property in Delhi, and other properties across Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Hyderabad, Chennai and east Godavari.
“During 2017-2019, Yes Bank invested ₹2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and ₹2,045 crore in RCFL instruments. These turned into non‑performing investments by December 2019, with ₹1,353.5 crore then outstanding for RHFL and ₹1,984 crore for RCFL,” the ED had said earlier.
Besides, the agency sources said, RCom and its group companies availed loans totalling ₹40,185 crore from domestic and foreign lenders between 2010 and 2012. Five of these banks have declared the accounts as fraudulent.
The investigation has revealed that loans taken by one entity from a bank were utilised for repayment of loans taken by other entities from other banks, transferred to related parties and invested in mutual funds, which was in contravention of the terms and conditions of the sanction letter of the loans, the sources said.
In particular, RCom (Reliance Communications Ltd) and its group companies diverted over ₹13,600 crore for evergreening of loans, over ₹12,600 crore was diverted to connected parties and over ₹1,800 crore was invested in fixed deposits and mutual funds, which were substantially liquidated for rerouting to group entities, the ED said.
