The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday launched raids at 35 locations of 50 companies and over 25 individuals in connection with a loan fraud and money laundering probe against Anil Ambani-led Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Group companies.
Yes Bank officials, including former chairman and co-founder Rana Kapoor, are also under the scanner, reported Hindustan Times. The financial crimes probe agency has taken over two cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation on September 19, 2022, related to two separate loans given by Yes Bank to Reliance Home Finance Limited and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd. In both cases, CBI had reportedly named Rana Kapoor.
Other agencies and institutions, such as the National Housing Bank, SEBI, National Financial Reporting Authority, and Bank of Baroda, also shared information with the ED as reported by Hindustan Times.
“Preliminary investigations have revealed a well-planned and thought-after scheme to divert or siphon off public money by cheating banks, shareholders, investors, and other public institutions,” said the officials, reported HT. He added that “the offence of bribing bank officials, including the founder of Yes Bank (Rana Kapoor), is also under scanner."
Another ED official said preliminary investigations have revealed “illegal loan diversion of around ₹3000 crores from Yes Bank between 2017 and 2019. We have also found that just before the loan was granted, the Yes Bank promoters received money in their accounts. The ED is investigating this nexus of bribery and the loan,” reported by HT.
The ED has found a “gross violation” in Yes Bank loan approvals to Reliance Anil Ambani Group Companies. “Credit approval memorandums were back-dated, investments were proposed without any due diligence or credit analysis in violation of the bank’s credit policy. Further, these loans were diverted to many group companies and shell companies,” a third ED officer said to HT.
SEBI, the market regulator, has also shared its findings with ED in the case of RHFL.
Some red flags found by ED during probe include “loans given to entities with weak financials, no proper documentation, no due diligence, borrowers having common addresses, common directors, etc, and diversion of loans to promoter group entities, evergreening of loans, loans disbursed on same date as date of application, loans disbursed before sanction, misrepresentation of financials. There was a dramatic increase in corporate loans by RHFL, from ₹3,742.60 crore in FY 2017-18 to ₹8,670.80 crore in FY 2018-19, which is also under ED lens”, the third ED official said, reported HT.
