ED searches 35 premises linked to Anil Ambani

NEW DELHI: Early on Thursday, the ED swooped in on more than 35 premises identified with industrialist Anil Ambani and at least 50 entities associated with his Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) across Mumbai in a larger money laundering investigation targeted at him based on multiple FIRs registered by CBI and other agencies over the last few years.

The searches have huge financial implications for public money, Rs 20-30,000 crore, which the agency believes has been siphoned off.Ambani investigation throws up mysterious entity: 'C Company' The searches at premises identified with industrialist Anil Ambani have huge financial implications for public money, Rs 20-30,000 crore, which the agency believes has been siphoned off, including outside the country, through "undisclosed foreign bank accounts and foreign assets" created over the years. A large chunk of the money came to Reliance ADAG from SBI and other public sector banks, besides Yes Bank, then a private entity, and mutual funds.Preliminary investigation has thrown up a mysterious entity: 'C Company'. The entity, whose existence was not known so far, is allegedly found to have been involved in related party transactions in this whole scam, sources said.Sources said ED was probing an alleged loan fraud ofRs 14,000 crore involving Reliance Communications Ltd and other associated entities. In response to a question in Lok Sabha on Monday, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said SBI has "classified Reliance Communications Ltd along with promoter director Anil Ambani as 'fraud' on June 13".

This has also been communicated to Bombay Stock Exchange."Based on information received from Sebi, ED has found Reliance Infra has diverted large sums of money disguised as ICDs to group companies of ADAG (Anil Ambani group) through 'C Company', an undisclosed related company," a source told TOI.Reliance Infra did not disclose 'C Company' as its related party in order to avoid having to take proper approval from shareholder and audit committees, the source added.

It was also hidden presumably to circumvent checks and balances imposed on related party transactions as per laws.Besides, there is an investigation in the alleged diversion of loans of over Rs 10,000 crore by Reliance Infra. ED's probe is looking at why Reliance Infra took a haircut of Rs 5,480 crore, receiving only Rs 4 crore in cash, while agreeing to settle the remaining Rs 6,499 crore through transfer to certain discoms, which have neither been operational nor done business for many years.The agency is already probing Ambani and his entities in a case of Rs 3,000 crore received from Yes Bank where he is alleged to have bribed the former CEO of the bank, Rana Kapoor, through his wife's company for Rs 225 crore. In another case of alleged misappropriation of bank funds, the agency is probing Reliance Communications for a loan default ofRs 1,050 crore to Canara Bank.Sources said more than 25 individuals, including Ambani and his close associates, are targets of the search operations which started on Thursday morning in a probe initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.ED is being assisted by multiple agencies, including National Housing Bank, Sebi, National Financial Reporting Authority and Bank of Baroda among others.The alleged loan diversion of around Rs 3,000 crore from Yes Bank pertains to the period between 2017 and 2019. ED is investigating alleged quid pro quo in sanction of loan as a Reliance Anil Ambani entity had transferredRs 225 crore into the accounts of RAB Enterprises, in which Rana Kapoor's wife Bindu Kapoor had 100% stake.These are all part of an FIR registered by CBI and now being investigated by ED. The FIR also alleged that credit approval memorandums were back dated, and the proposed investments lacked due diligence, not meeting the bank's credit policy.Sources said preliminary investigation found that these loans were diverted to many group entities and shell companies, in many cases there was no proper documentation to loans issued. In several cases, borrowers were found to have common addresses and directors.