Industrialist Anil Ambani, chairman of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) group, appeared before directorate of enforcement (ED) on Tuesday in connection with a high-profile money laundering probe linked to alleged bank loan fraud involving several of his group companies.
Mr Ambani reached the central Delhi headquarters of the ED in an electric vehicle around 10:50am and was questioned for several hours. His statement is being recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), say reports.
ED has not permitted Mr Ambani to have legal counsel present during the questioning which is being videographed as per standard protocol in such cases.
The probe agency is investigating whether large bank loans availed by various Reliance ADA group entities over the past decade were misused or deliberately siphoned off. The questioning is focused on the possible diversion of funds from the sanctioned loans.
Mr Ambani reportedly claimed a lack of knowledge about many transactions flagged by investigators, according to persons familiar with the matter. Officials, however,
told NDTV Profit that he (Anil Ambani) will be summoned again within seven to 10 days as the agency digs deeper into the complex financial trail.
ED’s investigation stems from multiple bank complaints involving loan defaults worth hundreds of crores allegedly connected to Mr Ambani’s corporate group. The agency is examining potential violations under the PMLA, including the alleged laundering of funds and misuse of credit facilities extended by public sector banks.
ED has also summoned several senior executives of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) group and is likely to call in top bankers for questioning as part of its ongoing money laundering investigation into alleged loan fraud involving group companies, say media reports.
According to a report from
Economic Times (ET), the summons, issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), include Reliance ADA group's vice-chairman Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and senior group official Sateesh Seth. Multiple executives, who were earlier subject to searches by the agency, are suspected of playing key roles in orchestrating transactions that allegedly cheated a consortium of banks.
As reported by
NDTV Profit, ED has written to the managements of 12–13 public and private sector banks, likely including State Bank of India (SBI), Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, UCO Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank, seeking details of the due diligence and approval process for loans extended to Reliance Housing Finance Ltd (RHFL), Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd.
The agency has requested information on loan sanction procedures, timelines of default and recovery actions initiated. Investigators are expected to summon bank officials if their responses are found unsatisfactory.
The latest action comes days after ED secured a lookout circular (LoC) against Mr Ambani in connection with the alleged Rs17,000-crore loan fraud case. Mr Ambani has been summoned to appear before the agency on 5 August 2025.
In recent months, ED has searched 35 locations in Mumbai linked to Reliance ADA group, covering 50 companies and 25 individuals. The probe has also unearthed connections between group entities and a fake Rs68.2-crore bank guarantee submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
According to ED, the bogus guarantee was purportedly issued in the names of Reliance NU BESS Ltd and Maharashtra Energy Generation Ltd, both linked to the Anil Ambani group. Investigators allege that a spoofed email domain — 's-bi.co.in' — was created to mimic the official SBI address 'sbi.co.in', to convince SECI that the guarantee was genuine.
The bank guarantee was allegedly arranged by Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd (BTPL), an Odisha-based company. The ED, citing a first information report (FIR) filed by the Delhi police's economic offences wing (EOW) in November 2024, says BTPL provided the forged document along with fabricated SBI endorsements for a SECI tender, receiving Rs5.40 crore from Reliance Power Ltd for the service.
On 1 August 2025, ED arrested Partha Sarathi Biswal, BTPL’s managing director (MD), under the PMLA. The agency alleges the firm maintained seven undisclosed bank accounts, conducted transactions disproportionate to its declared turnover, and used dummy directors to sign documents.
Searches revealed that BTPL had no statutory records at its registered office and violations of the Companies Act were also detected. The ED has traced proceeds of crime worth several crore to the undisclosed accounts. Mr Biswal has been remanded in custody until 6 August 2025.
The agency has sought domain registration records from the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) to trace the source and digital footprint of the spoofed SBI email domain.
Last month, the Union government confirmed in Parliament that SBI has officially classified the loan account of Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) as 'fraud' and has reported the name of the company's former director Mr Ambani to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), following due regulatory process.
SBI’s total exposure to the troubled telecom company stands at over Rs3,000 crore. This includes Rs2,227.64 crore in fund-based principal outstanding, along with Rs786.52 crore in non-fund-based bank guarantees, the government says.
Ambani played his game with investigators showing ignorance to irregularities.
Lesser said the better for his multi millionaire employees who will be questioned soon.. in fact Amitabh Jhunjhunwala is said to be a billionaire, atleast as per a news report where his son has been referred to as scion of one of India’s wealthiest families in an interview.
What is common for all these employees is making multi crore salaries when bank loans were defaulted rampantly and companies were making losses.. second being their pathetic performance and management capabilities which is the cause of Anil Ambani’s string of failures for over a decade (without even a single outlier year)
While all companies were making losses (in reality maybe not on on paper), was it a Ponzi scheme that If these stooges got bank loans, siphoned money to Anil Ambanis private companies; they get their cut in form of a fat pay check.. whether a listed company is making a profit or a loss, till Ambani keeps getting money in his private companies.
What can we expect such employees to reveal ?
Do their past income tax returns show their wealth or they were getting their single digit cut of siphoned money in their privately owned companies. For example, it is in public domain that 2 sons of Sateesh Seth own privately held companies which own significant real estate.
Likewise Amitabh Jhunjhunwalas son Abhinav runs an investment fund from Singapore.. where did the money come from ? The 2 ends or this circle will meet when the investigators go to the next layer of the next generation. After all being employees and key managerial personnel, was it ethical for Jhunjhunwala or Sateesh Seth, corporate India’s worst performing employees, to have other sources of undisclosed income from undisclosed related parties ??
Why did Anil Ambani keep giving fat salaries and perks to the worst performing employees of corporate India - Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Sateesh Seth ? Was it because of their calibre or abetment in siphoning off money and cooking books of accounts..
Only a fair investigation can tell. Otherwise Anil Ambani will live another day, to come in news for another scam a few years later