The Enforcement Directorate is raiding premises linked to Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani in Delhi and Mumbai in connection with a money laundering case, sources said, following two FIRs registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which alleged large-scale financial irregularities.
As part of the operation, ED officials raided and examined records at over 50 firms allegedly connected to the case. More than 25 individuals were also questioned. According to sources, the probe agency is conducting search operations at nearly 35 locations. The preliminary investigation by ED has revealed a “well-planned and thought-out scheme to siphon off public money by cheating banks, shareholders, investors and other public institutions.”
The suspected offences also involve bribery of senior bank officials, including former promoters of Yes Bank Ltd, to facilitate large unsecured loans.
Between 2017 and 2019, Yes Bank is said to have disbursed approximately Rs 3,000 crore in loans to RAAGA companies — entities under the Reliance Anil Ambani Group. The ED claims to have detected an illegal quid pro quo arrangement wherein promoters of Yes Bank allegedly received payments in their privately held concerns just before sanctioning the loans.
The investigation has flagged several red flags, including loans issued to companies with poor or unverified financials, use of common directors and addresses across multiple borrowing entities, lack of essential documentation in sanction files, routing of funds to shell entities and instances of “loan evergreening” — where fresh loans were given to repay existing ones.
Sources have also indicated the alleged involvement of senior Yes Bank executives and promoters in facilitating these irregular loans. The probe agency suspects that key bank officials may have received personal payments or benefits in return for approving large, unsecured loans to certain RAAGA companies.
Several regulatory and financial bodies have shared their own findings with the ED, including the National Housing Bank (NHB), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), and Bank of Baroda.
SEBI has submitted a report highlighting serious irregularities within Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL), a group company. According to the report, the firm’s corporate loan portfolio nearly doubled from Rs 3,742 crore in FY 2017-18 to Rs 8,670 crore in FY 2018-19.
Separately, the State Bank of India (SBI) has classified Reliance Communications (RCom), a group company of Anil Ambani, and Mr Ambani himself as “fraud” accounts.
This is not the first time the bank has labelled the account as fraudulent. SBI had earlier declared RCom and Mr Ambani as fraud accounts in November 2020 and filed a complaint with the CBI on January 5, 2021. Then the Delhi High Court issued a status quo order on January 6, leading to the withdrawal of the complaint.
