ED moves to seize assets as probe into Anil Ambani group deepens with ₹40,185 crore money-laundering allegations

The Enforcement Directorate has intensified its investigations into the Anil Ambani group, filing multiple chargesheets and attaching assets worth Rs 8,078 crore over alleged fraudulent fund diversion of Rs 40,185 crore, involving shell companies and complex transactions.

The Enforcement Directorate has escalated its long-running probe into the Anil Ambani group by filing money-laundering prosecution complaints against company entities and former senior executives in two separate cases involving alleged proceeds of crime totalling ₹40,185 crore.

The complaints were lodged on August 8 before designated Prevention of Money Laundering Act courts in Delhi. One relates to Reliance Infrastructure and alleged diversion of funds from road projects, while the other is a supplementary complaint in the case linked to Reliance Communications, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel.

In the Reliance Infrastructure matter, the agency has named the company, former group executive Sateesh Seth and others before the special PMLA court at Dwarka. According to the ED, the case began with a Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing FIR in February and centres on allegations that money was channelled through shell entities and bank accounts using forged papers, including invoices tied to allegedly inflated diamond exports. The agency says the diversion involved four National Highways Authority of India road projects and that about ₹187 crore was siphoned off between September and October 2010 through back-dated and post-facto subcontracting arrangements for work that was never done.

The ED says it has already attached immovable property, equity in Reliance Power held by Reliance Infrastructure and land held by Ksheeraabd Constructions, with the combined value estimated at about ₹187 crore. It also said its inquiry into other individuals is continuing and that Seth, who left the Reliance group in 2025, is in judicial custody after his arrest.

The second complaint expands the money-laundering case tied to RCom, RTL and Reliance Infratel, building on a principal complaint filed in March. The ED says the investigation stems from CBI FIRs over alleged diversion of fund-based and non-fund-based credit lines and that fresh borrowing was allegedly used to repay earlier domestic and overseas liabilities, a practice known as evergreening. The agency has also alleged that funds moved through multiple group companies, conduit firms, bank accounts and liquid mutual funds before being used to service older external commercial borrowings and foreign currency convertible bonds. It says some transactions were presented as ordinary business deals even though the money was ultimately used for purposes outside the sanctioned loans.

According to the ED, loan proceeds were also transferred to other group entities, including Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Capital, and part of the money was allegedly used to acquire personal assets of promoters outside India. The agency says the alleged proceeds of crime in the RCom-linked investigation total about ₹40,185 crore and that assets worth roughly ₹8,078 crore have already been provisionally attached. Former senior executives Gautam Doshi and Amitabh Jhunjhunwala are also named in the supplementary complaint and remain in custody after separate arrests in June and July.

The new filings are the latest step in a broader enforcement drive. In February, the ED provisionally attached Anil Ambani’s Pali Hill residence, valued at ₹3,716.83 crore, saying it had been transferred to a private family trust to shield it from liabilities. In April, it attached assets worth ₹3,034.90 crore in the RCom bank fraud case, and in July it carried out searches at Reliance Anil Ambani group entities, seizing records it said pointed to suspicious transactions and beneficial ownership of assets. The allegations now move into the adjudicatory stage, although they remain unproven and will be tested before the courts.

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