Big blow to Anil Ambani: ED seizes ₹3,000 crore assets including Pali Hill home

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth more than ₹3,000 crore linked to Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani as part of a money-laundering investigation against his group companies, PTI reported on Monday, citing two government sources.

The financial crime agency issued four provisional orders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach the assets, which include the 66-year-old billionaire’s house in Mumbai’s upscale Pali Hill area, as well as other residential and commercial properties belonging to Reliance Group entities.

A plot of land belonging to Reliance Centre on Maharaja Ranjit Singh Marg in Delhi and multiple other assets in the national capital, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Hyderabad, Chennai and East Godavari have also been attached.

The total value of the attached assets is ₹3,084 crore.

The action is part of a wider probe into alleged diversion and laundering of public funds raised by Reliance Home Finance Ltd. (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd. (RCFL), two companies under Ambani’s group.

According to the ED, Yes Bank invested ₹2,965 crore in RHFL instruments and ₹2,045 crore in RCFL instruments between 2017 and 2019. These investments turned non-performing by December 2019, with ₹1,353.50 crore outstanding for RHFL and ₹1,984 crore for RCFL, the agency said.

The ED alleges that multiple group companies, including Reliance Infrastructure, were involved in irregularities and fund diversions exceeding ₹17,000 crore.

Ambani was questioned by the ED in August, following searches in July at 35 premises linked to 50 companies and 25 individuals, including executives from the Reliance Group.

The ED’s money laundering case is based on a complaint filed earlier by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).