India freezes over 75 billion rupees in assets tied to Anil Ambani in bank fraud probe

[MUMBAI] India’s top financial crimes agency said it had seized properties worth over US$846 million from firms linked to beleaguered tycoon Anil Ambani as part of a bank fraud probe.

Anil, the younger sibling of Asia’s richest person Mukesh Ambani, has business interests ranging from power to defence but has seen his fortunes wane over the last two decades.

In recent months, the industrialist has attracted law enforcement scrutiny with investigators probing alleged crimes ranging from diversion of bank loans to money laundering.

On Monday evening, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it had frozen assets worth more than 75 billion rupees, including office premises, residential units and over 132 acres of land as part of its investigation.

The agency said it had “detected fraudulent diversion of public money by various Reliance Anil Ambani group companies” and that it was “committed to restituting” the proceeds of these crimes to “their rightful claimants”.

The ED also said it had initiated the probe based on a criminal case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in August.

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Reliance Infrastructure, an Anil Ambani-controlled firm, said in a Monday statement that the ED’s decision to seize company assets would have “no impact” on business operations.

The CBI case stems from a fraud complaint received by the State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, which claimed it was hit with a loss of 29.29 billion rupees after Reliance Communications “misappropriated” bank funds.

A Reliance spokesperson said at the time that the tycoon “strongly denies all allegations and charges” and “will duly defend himself”.