Taking major action against Anil Ambani Group, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has temporarily attached properties worth about Rs 1,885 crore. This action has been taken as part of the money laundering investigation in the loan fraud related to Yes Bank and the Reliance Communications Bank fraud case. ED has issued four separate provisional attachment orders in this case.
According to ED, the assets which have been attached include money deposited in banks, share holdings in companies, outstanding amounts and immovable properties. Reliance Infrastructure Limited also has a stake in it, which is involved in investments in companies like BSES Yamuna Power, BSES Rajdhani Power and Mumbai Metro One Private Limited.
Apart from this, ED has also attached the bank balance of Rs 148 crore and the receivable amount of Rs 143 crore present in the name of Value Corp Finance and Security Limited. ED has also taken action against the personal properties of two senior employees of Anil Ambani Group. These include a residential house in the name of Angrai Sethuraman and shares and mutual fund investments in the name of Puneet Garg.
What did ED say about the action?
ED said that even before this, assets worth more than Rs 10,117 crore had been attached in cases related to Reliance Communications, Reliance Home Finance and Reliance Commercial Finance. After the latest action, the total attached assets of Anil Ambani Group has reached around Rs 12 thousand crores.
What was revealed in the ED investigation?
The agency’s investigation has revealed that between 2017 and 2019, Yes Bank had invested about Rs 2,965 crore in Reliance Home Finance and Rs 2,045 crore in Reliance Commercial Finance. By December 2019, these investments became NPA. During this period, about Rs 1,353.50 crore remained outstanding on RHFL and Rs 1,984 crore remained outstanding on RCFL.
ED says that Yes Bank had earlier received this money from Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund. According to SEBI rules, Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund could not invest directly in the finance companies of Anil Ambani Group. For this reason, people’s money was routed through Yes Bank and taken to Anil Ambani Group companies through a circuitous route.
ED took action on CBI’s FIR
On the basis of CBI’s FIR, ED has started a separate investigation in this case. Investigation has revealed that between 2010 and 2012, RCOM and its group companies had taken huge loans from domestic and foreign banks. In which till now more than Rs 40,185 crore is outstanding. 9 banks have declared these accounts as fraud.
Where was the money invested?
ED investigation has also revealed that the loan taken from one bank was used to repay the loan of another bank. Apart from this, the money was diverted to group companies, close people and mutual funds. The agency said that about Rs 13,600 crore was used for loan evergreening, Rs 12,600 crore for transfer to related companies and Rs 1,800 crore for investment in FDs and mutual funds.
The investigating agency says that some money was also sent abroad. Whereas bill discounting was also misused. ED says that the investigation of the case is still going on.
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