ED Summons Anil Ambani in ₹17,000 Crore Loan Fraud Case

The troubles of Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani are increasing. ED has sent summons to Anil Ambani for questioning in the Rs 17,000 crore loan fraud case. He has been asked to appear at ED's Delhi headquarters on August 5. Earlier, ED had raided several of his locations in Delhi and Mumbai for three days.

Let us tell you that last week ED raided 35 places related to Reliance Group in Mumbai. In this, 50 companies and 25 people were investigated. This action was taken under the Money Laundering Prevention Act.

At the same time, SEBI has shared the results of the investigation of alleged fraud of Rs 10,000 crore by Reliance Infrastructure with ED and two other agencies. According to the SEBI report, R Infra gave a large amount of money to Reliance Group units in the form of intercorporate deposits through an unknown related company called CLE Private Limited. CLE was identified as 'C' company in the investigation, about which there was a lot of speculation earlier. This company is located in Santacruz, Mumbai.

According to the ET report, a person close to the Reliance Group questioned these allegations. He says that Reliance Infra had disclosed the matter on February 9 and SEBI did not make any new discovery. He said that the total investment of Reliance Infra was Rs 6,500 crore, so the claim of misappropriation of Rs 10,000 crore is wrong. To recover this amount, Reliance Infrastructure reached an agreement in the arbitration of a retired Supreme Court judge, which is filed in the Bombay High Court.

SEBI had written to ED, National Financial Reporting Authority and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India in May for an independent investigation into the matter. SEBI's investigation found that R Infra did not follow the rules in related party transactions and misrepresented financial statements by describing CLE as a third company. As of March 31, 2022, R Infra had an investment of Rs 8,302 crore in CLE, which includes ICD, equity and corporate guarantee. According to the SEBI report, R Infra's expenditure in CLE from 2013 to 2023 was 25-90% of its total assets. CLE was considered a related party of Reliance Infra, as the signatories of its bank accounts used Reliance ADA Group emails. SEBI also found that Anil Ambani, as chairman of Reliance Group, held more than 40% shareholding and control in R Infra as of March 2019.