Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani has been charged with fund mismanagement and given a deadline to settle the dues in 15 days. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) warned the company of seizing its assets and bank accounts if it fails to comply with the demand. Along with Reliance Home Finance, the SEBI has issued a demand notice to six associated companies of Rs 154.50 crore.
The demand notice was sent to companies–Crest Logistics and Engineers, Reliance Unicorn Enterprises Pvt Ltd, Reliance Exchange Next Ltd, Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd, Reliance Business Broadcast News Holdings Ltd and Reliance Cleangen Ltd. The notice came after these entities following previous penalties left unpaid in August. In separate notices, the regulator directed them to pay Rs 25.75 crore each, which includes interest and recovery costs.
In August, Sebi had blocked industrialist Anil Ambani and 24 other entities from the securities market for five years for the diversion of funds from the company. Even former key officials of Reliance Home Finance were barred. Also, the regulator barred Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) from the securities market for six months and slapped a fine of Rs 6 lakh on it.
Sebi found that Anil Ambani had orchestrated a fraudulent scheme to take out funds from Reliance Home Finance Ltd by disguising them as loans to entities linked to him. The RHFL's key managerial personnel were also involved.
The market watchdog also noted that the remaining entities had played the role of being either recipients of illegally obtained loans or conduits to enable fund mismanagement from RHFL. The regulator levied a fine of Rs 25 crore on Ambani, and former key officials of RHFL including Rs 27 crore on Amit Bapna, Rs 26 crore on Ravindra Sudhalkar and Rs 21 crore on Pinkesh R Shah.
