Sebi bans Anil Ambani for funds diversion

RHFL’s share price fell from Rs59.60 in March 2018 to Rs0.75 in March 2020, as the extent of the fraud became clear and the company was drained of its resources. Even now, over 9 lakh shareholders remain invested in RHFL, facing significant losses. On Friday, it touched lower circuit of Rs4.46 on BSE

Modus Operandi

♦ Sebislapped penalty of Rs25 cron Anil Ambani

♦ Also restrained him as a director or Key Managerial Personnel in any listed entity

♦ Other 3 RHFL officials are Bapna, Sudhalkar and Shah

♦ Regulator also barred Reliance Home Finance

♦ Anil Ambani siphoned-off funds from RHFL

♦ And disguised them as loans to entities linked to him

♦ Eventually, these borrowers failed to repay

♦ It caused RHFL to default on its own debt obligations

New Delhi: Markets regulator Sebi has barred industrialist Anil Ambani and 24 others from the securities market for five years on charges of diversion of funds from Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL). Additionally, Sebi has imposed a penalty of Rs25 crore on Ambani and restrained him from serving as a director or Key Managerial Personnel (KMP) in any listed company or Sebi-registered entity for five years. Besides, a fine ranging Rs21 crore to Rs25 crore have been levied on 24 entities. Also, the regulator barred Reliance Home Finance from the securities market for six months and slapped a fine of Rs6 lakh on it. With networth of $42 bn, Anil Ambani was ranked as the sixth richest person globally in 2008. But Ambani’s fortunes sharply declined over the years.

An email sent to Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group company remained unanswered. After receiving multiple complaints alleging diversion/siphoning of funds of Reliance Home Finance Ltd, Sebiconducted an investigation for the period of FY2018-19 to ascertain any regulatory violations. In its probe, Sebi found that Anil Ambani, with the help of RHFL’s KMPs - Amit Bapna, Ravindra Sudhalkar and Pinkesh R Shah - have orchestrated a fraudulent scheme to siphon off funds from RHFL by disguising them as loans to entities linked to him.

Although the board of directors of RHFL had issued strong directives to stop such lending practices and review corporate loans regularly, the company’s management ignored these orders. This suggests a significant failure of governance, driven by certain KMPs under the influence of Ambani.

After the violations, RHFL’s share price fell from Rs59.60in March 2018 to Rs0.75 in March 2020. Even now, over 9 lakh shareholders remain invested in RHFL, facing significant losses. BSE kept the scrip under Graded Surveillance Measure (GSM): Stage-1 category.On Friday, it touched lower circuit of Rs4.46 on BSE.

Given these circumstances, the company RHFL itself should not be held equally responsible as the individuals involved in the fraud. Further, the remaining entities have played the role of being either recipients of illegally obtained loans or conduits to enable illegal diversion of money from RHFL, the regulator noted. Sebi said that 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)”.

Ambani has used his position as ‘chairperson of the ADA group’ and his significant indirect shareholding in the holding company of RHFL to orchestrate the fraud.