“He has been following the interim order (of February 11, 2022) for the last two and a half years,” the statement said.
On the August 22 order that barred him and 24 others from the securities market for five years on charges of diversion of funds, the spokesperson said, “Mr. Ambani is reviewing the final order dated August 22, 2024 passed by SEBI in this regard, and will take appropriate further action as per legal advice.”
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) also imposed a Rs. 25 crore fine and said he had orchestrated a scheme to “squeeze out” funds from Reliance Home Finance, a listed subsidiary of the Reliance Group, of which he is chairman. .
The ban means that he and 24 others cannot enter the securities market and are prohibited from directly or indirectly buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities.
In a separate statement, Mumbai-listed Reliance Infrastructure Ltd said “it is neither a notice nor a party to the proceedings before SEBI in which the order has been passed. No direction has been given in the order against Reliance Infrastructure Ltd”.
“Mr. Ambani resigned from the Board of Directors of Reliance Infrastructure Limited vide interim order dated February 11, 2022 passed by SEBI in the same proceeding. Therefore, the order dated August 22, 2024 passed by SEBI has no effect. Business and Affairs of Reliance Infrastructure Limited ,” it said.
Reliance Power, another listed company of Anil Ambani’s group, also issued a similar statement saying that Ambani had resigned in 2022 and the recent Sebi order had no effect on it.
Sebi, in an August 22 order, said that Reliance Home Finance, which provides loans for housing and construction, had “extracted” funds through a “fraudulent” scheme by structuring them as loans to credit-unsound borrowers.
The regulator said most of these borrowers were linked to “promoters”.
Anil Ambani and his elder brother Mukesh spun off Reliance Industries Limited, formed by their father Dhirubhai Ambani, in July 2006. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group expanded into financial services, infrastructure and telecommunications while the elder brother acquired traditional oil refining and petrochemicals businesses.
Over the past few years, Anil Ambani has seen three of the group’s biggest companies, including Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital and Reliance Infrastructure, go through bankruptcy due to unpaid debts.
SEBI has alleged that from Reliance Home Finance Rs. Loans of over Rs 9,000 crore were given to “nondescript borrowers who had no financial capacity to repay any of them.”
The other 24 banned include officials of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group and other unlisted companies linked to them.
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