Anil Ambani’s ₹3,000 crore worth of properties frozen as ED tracks fund diversions

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group is facing intensifying heat from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has provisionally frozen over ₹3,000 crore worth of assets—including Ambani’s Pali Hill home as part of a sweeping money laundering probe linked to major loan defaults and alleged fund diversions.

The ED has attached more than 40 properties spanning key Indian cities—Mumbai, Delhi, Noida, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai—under Section 5(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The move follows findings that public money raised through Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL) was diverted through a complex network of shell entities and conflicted investments.

Between 2017 and 2019, Yes Bank reportedly invested ₹5,010 crore in RHFL and RCFL. A substantial portion of these funds went unpaid, and investigations now suggest that the investments were funneled into group-linked entities, bypassing SEBI’s mutual fund regulations using indirect routing mechanisms through Yes Bank.

The ED flagged glaring lapses in loan processing: approvals fast-tracked without basic checks, missing documents, blank paperwork, and misuse of funds inconsistent with loan purposes. In several instances, money was released before loans were even formally sanctioned.

The CBI has also filed charges alleging a criminal conspiracy between former Yes Bank CEO Rana Kapoor and Anil Ambani, which led to over ₹2,700 crore in losses for the private lender. 

A separate ED investigation into Reliance Communications (RCOM) revealed an additional ₹13,600 crore in diverted funds, part of which was disguised as legitimate business operations and routed through fixed deposits and mutual funds.