NOB-Mumbai news: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has finally taken action against the corruption of prominent industrialist Anil Ambani. The decision was taken to ban him from the stock markets for five years. SEBI on 23.08.2024 took action against Anil Ambani and former officials of Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) in connection with the diversion of funds. In addition to these, 24 other companies have been banned for five years. Moreover, SEBI has taken a decision imposing a fine of Rs.25 crores on Anil Ambani. It also banned Ambani from engaging in any activity related to the securities markets, including as a director or key managerial personnel (KMP) in any listed company or as a registered intermediary with the market regulator for five years. He was also removed from the post of director in the listed company. Reliance Home Finance has also been banned from the securities markets for six months and fined Rs. 6 lakh. A fine of Rs. 25 crore has been ordered against some other companies involved in this matter. Actions were also taken against them for obtaining illegal loans or assisting in issuance of loans. It is noteworthy that SEBI has imposed a ban on all of them in 2022 as well.

Diversion of RHFL funds in the form of loans

SEBI released the report with total 222 pages. The details say Anil Ambani diverted RHFL funds in the form of loans to his affiliates. For that, he conspired with the key managers of the company. Although the RFHL board of directors tried to stop it, the management did not care. It was under the pressure of Anil Ambani that the key officials violated the rules and committed corruption. Investigations revealed that other organizations acted as recipients of funds or as intermediaries for the diversion. Most of the companies that took these loans failed to repay. RFHL went bankrupt. The situation of the public shareholders has become dire after going into bankruptcy resolution plan as per RBI norms. While the share price of the company was Rs. 59.60 in 2018, the fraud of the company was revealed by 2020. The share price fell to Rs.0.75. Still nine lakh shareholders continue to suffer losses, SEBI said in its report.