New Delhi: Anil Ambani, the businessman who used to be one of the richest and the most influential industrialists in India, is currently experiencing some severe issues. In a money laundering case related to his companies, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has penalized properties valued at more than 3,000 crore of money. This case has once again brought to the light of focus how his business empire had been struggling over the years.
According to reports, the ED has attached several expensive properties owned by Anil Ambani and his group companies. These include his luxury Pali Hill bungalow in Mumbai and other properties in cities like Delhi, Noida, Pune, Thane, Chennai, Hyderabad, and East Godavari.
The ED believes that money taken as loans from banks was not used properly and was instead moved through different companies in a suspicious way.
“The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached more than 42 properties of Reliance Anil Ambani Group worth more than ₹3,083 crore in connection with a case being investigated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),” said agency.
“So far, the ED has detected fraudulent diversion of public money by various Reliance Anil Ambani group companies including Reliance Communications LIimited, Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL), Reliance Infrastructure Limited (RIL) and Reliance Power Limited (RHFL),”.
“From around 2010-12 onwards, RCOM and its group companies raised thousands of crores from Indian banks, of which ₹19,694 crore still remains outstanding. These assets turned NPA [Non-Performing Asset], with five banks having declared RCOM’s loan accounts as fraud…loans taken by one entity from one bank were utilised for repayment of loans taken by other entities from other banks, transfer to related parties, and investments in mutual funds, which was in contravention to the terms and conditions of the sanction letter of the loans,” it said further.
The investigation mainly focuses on two of his companies, Reliance Home Finance Limited and Reliance Commercial Finance Limited. These companies had taken large loans from different banks, including Yes Bank. Over time, those loans turned into bad debts because the companies failed to repay the money. The ED suspects that the borrowed money was sent to fake or shell companies that were secretly linked to the same promoters.
Anil Ambani’s group
Another major claim against Anil Ambani’s group came from an investigative report that said around ₹28,000 crore of public money was diverted from the companies and sent to other firms in India and abroad. The report said that this had been happening for many years through complex transactions. These allegations suggest that funds meant for business use were possibly used to hide losses or move money illegally.
All this has created huge pressure on Anil Ambani’s business group, known as the Reliance ADA Group. Once a symbol of ambition and success, the group is now facing multiple cases, including those connected to Yes Bank and other financial institutions. Many banks have already marked some of the group’s loans as fraudulent. Because of these cases, lenders have lost trust, and new investors are staying away from the group’s projects.
The Reliance ADA Group, however, has denied all the allegations. They said that the claims made against them are false and meant to harm their image. According to the company, the numbers and facts mentioned in some reports are old and have been used again to create unnecessary drama. The group says it has always followed the law and that it will fight the cases in court.
Still, the damage seems deep. The attachment of properties worth ₹3,000 crore clearly states that the government is now moving to take strict action, not just to investigate but also to recover the money. It is a major step in India’s fight against white-collar crimes like money laundering.
For Anil Ambani, this marks another low point in his long business journey. Once the head of a fast-growing empire after the split from his elder brother Mukesh Ambani, his companies have faced constant financial troubles for more than a decade. While Mukesh Ambani built Reliance Industries into one of the world’s biggest companies, Anil Ambani’s empire kept shrinking under heavy debts and losses.
