In a significant escalation of its money laundering investigation, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday attached fresh assets worth Rs 1,120 crore
belonging to the Reliance Anil Ambani Group, including properties, fixed deposits, bank balances, and unquoted investments linked to the alleged fraud at Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL), and Yes Bank, said a HIndu report. This provisional attachment under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) brings the total seized assets in the case to nearly Rs 9,000 crore, following earlier seizures exceeding Rs 7,800 crore since October. The attached assets comprise seven properties of Reliance Infrastructure Limited, two from Reliance Power Limited, and nine from Reliance Value Service Private Limited. Additionally, fixed deposits in the names of Reliance Value Service Private Limited, Reliance Venture Asset Management Private Limited, M/s Phi Management Solutions Private Limited, M/s Adhar Property Consultancy Pvt Ltd, and M/s Gamesa Investment Management Private Limited have been frozen, along with further unquoted investments by Reliance Venture Asset Management Private Limited and M/s Phi Management Solutions Private Limited. The probe stems from a CBI FIR alleging criminal conspiracy, cheating, and corruption in the diversion of public funds raised by RHFL and RCFL. Between 2017 and 2019, Yes Bank invested Rs 2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and Rs 2,045 crore in RCFL, which turned non-performing by December 2019, leaving Rs 1,353.50 crore and Rs 1,984 crore outstanding, respectively. ED investigations revealed that these funds—totaling over Rs 10,000 crore—were routed indirectly through Yes Bank to bypass SEBI's conflict-of-interest rules prohibiting direct mutual fund investments in Anil Ambani Group entities. Instead, public money from schemes like Reliance Nippon Mutual Fund was allegedly laundered via bank exposures, with proceeds diverted to group companies for evergreening loans and other uses. ED sources described the actions as "intentional control failures" enabling systematic fraud, with probes now extending to Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM), where over Rs 13,600 crore in loans were allegedly siphoned through shell entities and bill discounting. The agency has identified Rs 12,600 crore routed to connected parties and Rs 1,800 crore liquidated from fixed deposits and mutual funds for group benefit. Anil Ambani and his group companies have not issued a public response, but the attachments—spanning residential, commercial, and land assets across cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, and Chennai—intensify scrutiny on the debt-laden conglomerate. This follows a Supreme Court notice on November 19 for a court-monitored probe into RCOM's bank frauds. As the investigation deepens, stakeholders await further ED actions amid the group's ongoing restructuring efforts.
