The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the market regulator, has banned industrialist Anil Ambani and 24 others, including top officials of Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL), from trading in the securities market for five years. This action was taken due to their involvement in financial manipulations within the company.
SEBI has also imposed a fine of ₹25 crore on Anil Ambani and prohibited him from holding any directorial or managerial positions in any listed company or any market intermediary registered with SEBI for the next five years. Additionally, RHFL has been banned from the securities market for six months and fined ₹6 lakh.
In a 222-page final order, SEBI found that Anil Ambani, with the help of key personnel at RHFL, conspired to siphon off funds from the company by disguising them as loans to related entities. This was done despite strict instructions from RHFL’s Board of Directors to prevent such loans and conduct regular reviews of corporate loans. However, the company management ignored these orders, showing that key personnel were under Anil Ambani’s influence and failed to manage the company properly.
SEBI stated that the remaining entities involved were either recipients of the illegally obtained loans or acted as channels to facilitate the unlawful withdrawal of funds from RHFL.
The findings of SEBI have established the existence of a fraudulent conspiracy orchestrated by Anil Ambani, which was executed by RHFL’s key personnel. This conspiracy involved diverting funds from the publicly listed company (RHFL) to unqualified entities, labeled as ‘loans,’ which were then passed on to other borrowers linked to the promoter, Anil Ambani.
According to SEBI’s order issued on Thursday, Anil Ambani used his position as “Chairman of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group” and his significant indirect stake in RHFL’s holding company to carry out this fraud.