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.

Additionally, Sebi has imposed a penalty of Rs 25 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 Rs 21 crore to Rs 25 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 Rs 6 lakh on it.

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, Sebi conducted an investigation for the period of FY 2018-19 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.

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.

Sebi, in its 222-page order on Thursday, noted the cavalier approach by the company's management and promoter in approving loans worth hundreds of crores to companies that had little to no assets, cash flow, net worth, or revenue.

This suggests a sinister objective behind the 'loans'. The situation becomes even more suspicious when considering that many of these borrowers were closely linked to the promoters of RHFL.

Eventually, most of these borrowers failed to repay their loans, causing RHFL to default on its own debt obligations. This led to the company's resolution under the RBI Framework, leaving its public shareholders in a difficult position.

For example, in March 2018, RHFL's share price was around Rs 59.60. By March 2020, as the extent of the fraud became clear and the company was drained of its resources, the share price had plummeted to just Rs 0.75. Even now, over 9 lakh shareholders remain invested in RHFL, facing significant losses.

Accordingly, Sebi has barred these 25 entities including Ambani and former officials from "accessing the securities market and prohibited from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities, directly or indirectly, for a period of 5 years".

Ambani and three former officials of RHFL (Bapna, Sudhalkar and Shah) have been "restrained from being associated with the securities market including as a director or Key Managerial Personnel (KMP) in any listed company, or any intermediary registered with Sebi, for a period of 5 years".

Also, the regulator levied a fine of Rs 27 crore on Bapna, Rs 26 crore on Sudhalkar and Rs 21 crore on Shah.

Additionally, the remaining entities including Reliance Unicorn Enterprises, Reliance Exchange next Ltd, Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd, Reliance Cleangen Ltd, Reliance Business Broadcast News Holdings Ltd and Reliance Big Entertainment Private Ltd have been imposed a penalty of Rs 25 crore each.

These fines have been levied on them for either receiving the illegally obtained loans or acting as intermediaries to facilitate the illegal diversion of funds from RHFL.

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