ED Summons Anil Ambani in Rs 1000s-Crore Loan Fraud Probe
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned businessman Anil Ambani in connection with its money laundering investigation into alleged multi-thousand crore loan fraud involving two Reliance Group finance companies. Ambani has been directed to appear before the agency on August 5 for questioning.
Officials said Ambani is likely to be asked about loans granted to Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL), and the suspected diversion of those funds. The ED’s probe follows recent raids on 50 companies and 25 individuals, including senior executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firms.
The loans under investigation were sanctioned by Yes Bank during the tenure of its former chairman Rana Kapoor, who is also named as an accused by the CBI. According to investigators, the approvals violated the bank’s credit policies, with backdated documents, inadequate due diligence, and funds routed to group and shell companies.
The ED is also probing a sharp jump in RHFL’s corporate loans from Rs 3,742.6 crore in FY18 to Rs 8,670.8 crore in FY19, suspecting large-scale irregularities. Separately, Reliance Communications Ltd is under investigation for an alleged Rs 14,000 crore loan fraud.
A Reliance Group spokesperson said Ambani stepped down from the RCom board in 2019 and is not a director in any Reliance Group company today. The group clarified that RHFL and RCom are not part of the present Reliance Group, which now has only Reliance Infrastructure Ltd and Reliance Power Ltd as its listed entities.
The ED’s three-day raids, which concluded on July 27, had “no impact” on business operations, the group said in a stock exchange filing.
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