By Nikunj Ohri
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s financial crime agency has provisionally frozen 30.84 billion rupees ($351 million) worth of real estate assets linked to Reliance Anil Ambani Group as part of a money-laundering investigation, it said in a statement on Monday.
The case relates to loans from India’s YES Bank in excess of $569 million taken out by the group between 2017 and 2019 and involves what the Enforcement Directorate alleges was the diversion and laundering of public funds.
Reliance Group, owned by the younger brother of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, did not immediately respond to a request for comment and has not communicated publicly on the investigation.
YES Bank also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
AGENCY DETECTS ‘FRAUDULENT DIVERSION OF PUBLIC MONEY’
ED said in its statement that it had blocked any transactions from taking place on residential units and land parcels across Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, including industrialist Anil Ambani’s family residence in Mumbai.
It said investigators have detected the “fraudulent diversion of public money” by entities including Reliance Group-controlled companies Reliance Home Finance Ltd and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd.
These companies received over 100 billion rupees of public funds, including loans from YES Bank, through shell companies, it said.
“ED’s investigation revealed that loans taken by one entity from one bank were utilized for repayment of loans taken by other entities from other banks, transfer to related parties, and investments in mutual funds, which was in contravention to the terms and conditions of the sanction letter of the loans,” the agency said.
The Reliance Group entities are also accused of paying bribes to YES Bank officials before loans were disbursed, a government source had said earlier.
ED is separately probing Reliance Communications Ltd and affiliates, where over 136 billion rupees were allegedly diverted through loan evergreening and fund rerouting.
($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nikunj Ohri; Writing by Sarita Chaganti Singh and Surbhi Misra; Editing by Kim Coghill and Joe Bavier)
