ED attaches ₹3,000 crore worth of assets linked to Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 40 properties valued at around ₹3,084 crore — including the Ambani family’s Pali Hill residence in Mumbai and the Reliance Centre in Delhi — as part of its money laundering investigation into the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, officials said.

The attachments, made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), cover assets spread across Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Hyderabad, Chennai (including Kancheepuram) and East Godavari. They include office spaces, residential properties and land parcels. The company has not yet commented on the action.

Probe details

The ED is probing alleged diversion of public funds raised by Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL). According to the agency, Yes Bank invested ₹2,965 crore in RHFL and ₹2,045 crore in RCFL between 2017 and 2019. By December 2019, these investments had turned non-performing, leaving ₹1,353.5 crore outstanding for RHFL and ₹1,984 crore for RCFL.

Investigators say mutual fund money that could not legally be invested directly in Anil Ambani Group firms — due to SEBI conflict of interest rules — was instead routed indirectly via Yes Bank exposures, and ultimately landed with group companies.

Alleged diversion and control failures

ED officials allege that RHFL and RCFL issued large corporate loans to entities linked to the Reliance Group, with major lapses in due diligence:

• Loans were sanctioned and disbursed on the same day, in some cases before applications were even submitted.

• Key documents were allegedly undated, overwritten or left blank.

• Borrowers reportedly had weak financials, inadequate security and mismatched end-use of funds.

• Several loans were processed without basic prudential checks.

The agency claims these “consistent and intentional control failures” enabled diversion and siphoning of funds. It has also widened the probe into Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM) and related firms, alleging diversion of over ₹13,600 crore through loan evergreening, connected-party transactions and misuse of bill discounting.

According to the ED, more than ₹12,600 crore was diverted to related entities, while over ₹1,800 crore was parked in fixed deposits or mutual funds and later routed back to group companies.

“ED continues to trace proceeds of crime and secure attachments of property. Recoveries will ultimately benefit the general public,” one official said.