The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday attached assets worth Rs 510 crore belonging to the Reliance Anil Ambani Group in two ongoing bank fraud cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The fresh provisional attachments relate to the Reliance Communications Limited case (Rs 247.12 crore) and the Reliance Home Finance Limited and Reliance Commercial Finance Limited case (Rs 263.05 crore).
With these measures in place, the agency’s cumulative attachments and seizures against the group across all the investigations now stand at around Rs 23,100 crore.
In the Reliance Communications case, the attachments include two chartered aircraft (VT-AAT, a Dassault Falcon 2000, and VT-OMM, an Embraer EMB-135BJ (Legacy 650)), six pieces of land, and an office in Maharashtra. In the Reliance Home Finance and Reliance Commercial Finance cases, the attachments are two windmills in Tamil Nadu, along with bank balances, fixed deposits and investments/receivables.
The ED have identified these properties and instruments as proceeds of crime in relation to the alleged frauds.
The ED’s investigation is based on several first information reports filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation’s Delhi unit, the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police, and the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police. The agency is also looking into two separate cases under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. The companies under investigation are Reliance Communication Limited, Reliance Home Finance Limited, Reliance Commercial Finance Limited, Reliance Infrastructure Limited, Reliance Power Limited, and Reliance Capital Limited.
The agency says its investigation found that the group siphoned public funds from banks and financial institutions, misused the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to protect corporate assets for personal use, and sent funds from India to offshore tax havens. According to the Enforcement Directorate, a large part of the diverted money benefited the promoters and their family members.
So far, the agency has arrested ten people in these cases and filed six prosecution complaints under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). It has also filed one more complaint under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. The investigation is still ongoing.
The latest attachments are part of a wider campaign against companies headed by Anil Ambani, which has been going on for years. The ED has previously attached/seized assets in relation to cases of bank loans, corporate borrowings and diversion of funds. The total value of the attachments is now around Rs 23,100 crore under both the money laundering and foreign exchange laws.
The cases involve very complex transactions across several group companies and offshore entities. The attachment of high-value assets (aircraft, land, windmills) is intended to prevent further loss as the investigations proceed to trial. The Maharashtra office and the windmills in Tamil Nadu have also been attached to give the office control over those assets.
This is part of the ongoing work of central agencies in high-value bank fraud and money laundering cases involving large corporate groups. Their focus is on tracing public funds allegedly siphoned out of the banking system and identifying assets to attach. With the addition of two aircraft and other properties, the total value of assets attached in the group’s cases has now crossed Rs 23,000 crore, the ED said.
The ED has said these actions are provisional and will be subject to review by the competent authority under the PMLA. The agency said it may attach further assets if it identifies additional proceeds of crime during the investigations. However, Reliance Anil Ambani Group has not yet responded to the ED’s release.