India's market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has rejected settlement applications filed by industrialist Anil Ambani, Reliance Infrastructure, and associated entities and individuals. The rejections pertain to allegations of misusing company funds totaling approximately $700 million, or 65.26 billion rupees, which SEBI suggests may have been diverted for personal enrichment rather than corporate purposes for public shareholders.
SEBI's decision to reject the settlement bids, communicated around 10 days prior, marks the second such rejection for Ambani. The regulator cited ongoing investigations by other enforcement agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which are probing financial irregularities and money laundering allegations against the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group. The ED has already attached assets exceeding 19,000 crore rupees and filed multiple prosecution complaints in connection with these cases.
The allegations involve the alleged diversion of 176.7 billion rupees ($1.9 billion) from Reliance Infrastructure to CLE Private Ltd, an engineering contractor, which then supposedly invested at least 112 billion rupees in firms linked to the Ambani-led Reliance ADA Group over a decade. SEBI determined that CLE functioned as an indirectly controlled company of the Reliance ADA Group. A spokesperson for the Anil Ambani group has "categorically" denied the allegations, stating that the matters are sub judice and the group will continue to defend its position.
