The Enforcement Directorate on Friday provisionally attached assets worth ₹1,120 crore belonging to Anil Ambani-led Reliance ADA Group companies in connection with an alleged multi-layered bank fraud involving Yes Bank, Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL). The latest action pushes the cumulative value of seized properties and investments linked to the group past decade’s financial irregularities to a staggering ₹10,117 crore.
The attached assets include 18 prime properties spread across Mumbai and other cities, fixed deposits, bank balances and unquoted equity investments. Seven properties belong to Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, two to Reliance Power Ltd and nine to Reliance Value Services Pvt Ltd. Several fixed deposits and shareholdings of group investment vehicles such as Reliance Venture Asset Management, Phi Management Solutions and Gamesa Investment Management have also been frozen under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
ED investigations have revealed that between 2017 and 2019, Yes Bank parked ₹2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and ₹2,045 crore in RCFL instruments, which subsequently turned into non-performing assets. The agency alleges that over ₹11,000 crore of public money was routed to Ambani group entities through a complex web designed to circumvent SEBI’s conflict-of-interest regulations that barred Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund from directly lending to sister concerns.
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The probe further established large-scale evergreening of loans, diversion of funds to related parties, overseas siphoning through outward remittances and misuse of bill discounting facilities. At least nine banks have already classified loans aggregating ₹40,185 crore extended to Reliance Communications and other group firms between 2010–2012 as fraudulent.
With the latest attachment, the ED has intensified its pursuit of recovering proceeds of crime in one of India’s largest corporate fraud investigations, sending a clear signal that accountability will be enforced irrespective of the stature of the entities involved. Further searches and summons are expected as the probe continues.
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