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Anil Ambani to pay ₹25 crore fine as Sebi bans him from securities market for 5 years
Sebi bars Anil Ambani and 24 entities from securities market for 5 years over fund diversion.
Markets regulator Sebi barred industrialist Anil Ambani, 24 other entities, including former key officials of Reliance Home Finance from the securities market for five years over diversion of funds from the company. Sebi also has imposed a penalty of ₹25 crore on Anil Ambani and restrained him from being associated with the securities market including as a director or Key Managerial Personnel (KMP) in any listed company or any intermediary registered with the Also, the regulator barred Reliance Home Finance from the securities market for six months and slapped a fine of ₹6 lakh on it.
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What Sebi said in its order against Anil Ambani
Sebi said in its 222-page final order that Anil Ambani, with the help of RHFL's key managerial personnel, orchestrated a fraudulent scheme to siphon-off funds from RHFL by disguising them as loans to entities linked to him.
The Board of Directors of RHFL issued strong directives to stop such lending practices and reviewed corporate loans regularly but the company's management ignored these orders. This suggests a significant failure of governance, driven by certain key managerial personnel under the influence of Anil Ambani, Sebi noted.
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Anil Ambani used his position as 'chairperson of the ADA group', Sebi notes
Sebi said its findings have established the "existence of a fraudulent scheme, orchestrated by Noticee No. 2 (Anil Ambani) and administered by the KMPs of RHFL, to siphon off funds from the public listed company (RHFL) by structuring them as 'loans' to credit unworthy conduit borrowers, and in turn, to onward borrowers, all of whom have been found to be 'promoter linked entities' i.e. entities associated/ linked with Noticee 2 (Anil Ambani)".
Anil Ambani used his position as 'chairperson of the ADA group' and his significant indirect shareholding in the holding company of RHFL to orchestrate the fraud.
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Sebi's action against 24 entities
Sebi also restrained 24 entities which include former key officials of Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) -- Amit Bapna, Ravindra Sudhalkar and Pinkesh R Shah. The regulator levied a fine of ₹25 crore on Ambani, ₹27 crore on Bapna, ₹26 crore on Sudhalkar and ₹21 crore on Shah.
The remaining entities including Reliance Unicorn Enterprises, Reliance Exchange next Lt, Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd, Reliance Cleangen Ltd, Reliance Business Broadcast News Holdings Ltd and Reliance Big Entertainment Private Ltd have been imposed a penalty of ₹25 crore each.
