RCom Bank Fraud Case: ED Seizes Reliance Realty, Campion Properties Assets

The Enforcement Directorate has intensified its action in the Reliance Communications bank loan case, issuing two Provisional Attachment Orders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The orders specifically target assets of RCom's wholly owned subsidiaries:

For Reliance Realty Ltd., the attached asset is a significant 132.07-acre plot situated in the Trans Thane Creek Industrial Area, within the limits of Navi Mumbai.

While for Campion Properties Ltd., the attached asset is the lease of a 3.7-acre plot of land located at Maharaja Ranjit Singh Marg, New Delhi.

The largest asset seized, the approximately 132 acres of land, is part of the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City complex and is valued at approximately Rs 4,462.81 crore, according to an ED statement.

This came after it was reported that the probing agency attached assets worth Rs 3,000 crore linked to the Anil Ambani group in connection with the case. This takes the cumulative seizure by the ED to over Rs 7,545 crore.

The ED initiated its investigation in the case following a CBI FIR that named Anil Ambani, RCom, and others on charges of fraud, conspiracy, and corruption. The focus of the probe is RCom and its affiliates, which had taken loans totaling more than Rs 40,000 crore from Indian and foreign banks between 2010 and 2012. Five of these accounts have since been declared fraudulent by the lending banks.

The ED investigation has reportedly exposed a complex pattern of financial diversion. The key findings indicate that approximately Rs 13,600 crore was diverted through "loan evergreening", which is a technique used to fraudulently make old loans appear new on the books, the report added.

Further, more than Rs 12,600 crore was allegedly transferred to related companies, and over Rs 1,800 crore was allegedly invested and withdrawn from fixed deposits and mutual funds before being reinvested back into group companies.

The alleged misuse of bill discounting schemes to funnel money to shell companies and the transfer of funds out of India were also uncovered. According to the ED, the ongoing investigation aims to recover all the misused funds and those transferred abroad.