ED action on Anil Ambani: Assets worth Rs 3,084 crore attached in PMLA case

Anil Ambani`s Mumbai office. Pic/Ashish Raje

Problems for Anil Ambani do not seem to be getting any easier, as the investigation agency, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), has attached assets worth more than Rs 3,000 crore linked to the Reliance Group Chairman. The attachments of his assets have been made as part of a money laundering investigation against his group companies, official sources said on Monday.

As reported by news agency PTI, the federal probe agency ED has issued four provisional orders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for attaching the properties, including the 66-year-old Ambani's house in Pali Hill, Mumbai, apart from other residential and commercial properties of his group companies, they said.

Also, a plot of land belonging to Reliance Centre on Maharaja Ranjit Singh Marg in Delhi and multiple other assets in the national capital region of Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Hyderabad, Chennai and East Godavari have also been attached, as per PTI.

According to the sources, the total value of all the assets of Anil Ambani, which have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate, is valued at Rs 3,084 crore.

The case pertains to the alleged diversion and laundering of public funds raised by Reliance Home Finance Ltd. (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd. (RCFL).

Earlier during 2017-2019, Yes Bank invested Rs 2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and Rs 2,045 crore in RCFL instruments.

However, 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, and therefore an investigation under the Protection of Money Laundering Act was initiated, according to the ED.

The action against Ambani pertains to alleged financial irregularities and collective loan "diversion" pegged at more than Rs 17,000 crore by multiple group companies, including Reliance Infrastructure.

While the businessman was questioned in the case by the ED in August, the Enforcement Directorate also searched 35 premises of 50 companies and 25 people, including executives of his business group, in Mumbai on July 24.

Moreover, the ED's money laundering case stems from the FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

(With inputs from PTI)