New Delhi. Industrialist Anil Ambani is reviewing the order of capital market regulator SEBI. He will take appropriate steps based on legal advice. His spokesperson said this on Sunday. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has banned Anil Ambani from the capital market for five years. The spokesperson said in the statement that Ambani had resigned from the board of directors of Reliance Infrastructure Limited and Reliance Power Limited to comply with SEBI’s interim order of August 11, 2022 in a case related to Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL).
According to the statement, he has been “compliant with the said interim order (of February 11, 2022) for the last two and a half years. In an order dated August 22, SEBI had banned Anil Ambani and 24 others from the securities market for five years on charges of money laundering. The spokesperson said, “Anil Ambani is reviewing the final order dated August 22, 2024 passed by SEBI in the said case and will take the next step as per legal advice.” SEBI had also imposed a fine of Rs 25 crore on Ambani and said that he had planned to misappropriate funds from Reliance Home Finance. Reliance Home Finance is a listed subsidiary of Reliance Group of which he is the chairman.
Under the ban, Anil and other 24 entities will not be able to transact in the securities market. They will be banned from buying, selling or otherwise transacting securities directly or indirectly. Mumbai-listed Reliance Infrastructure Limited said in a separate statement that it was “not a noticee or party in the proceedings before SEBI in which the order has been passed. No directions have been given in the order against Reliance Infrastructure Limited.”
According to the statement, Anil Ambani had resigned from the board of directors of Reliance Infrastructure Limited as per the interim order dated February 11, 2022 passed by SEBI in the same proceedings. Therefore, the order dated August 22, 2024 passed by SEBI has no effect on the business and affairs of Reliance Infrastructure Limited. Reliance Power, another listed company of Anil Ambani’s group, also issued a similar statement saying that Ambani has resigned in 2022 and the latest order of SEBI will have no effect on it.
In its August 22 order, Sebi had said funds were “diverted” from Reliance Home Finance, a housing and construction loan provider, under a “fraudulent” scheme that was structured as loans to credit-ineligible borrowers.
The regulator had said that most of these borrowers were linked to “promoters”.
Anil Ambani and his elder brother Mukesh Ambani split Reliance Industries Ltd, formed by their father Dhirubhai Ambani, in July 2006. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group comprised financial services, infrastructure and telecommunications, while the elder brother got the traditional oil refining and petrochemicals business. Over the years, Anil Ambani has seen three of the group’s largest companies, including Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital and Reliance Infrastructure, go bankrupt due to outstanding debts.