After a decade of studious indifference to financial recklessness, defaults and allegations of financial jugglery, the Anil Ambani group is finally in the enforcement directorate's (ED) crosshairs. Early August saw the ED summon top officials, including Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Satish Seth, in a money laundering investigation linked to a Rs17,000-crore bank loan fraud involving Reliance Communications (RCom), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL), and Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) (Read: ED Summons Bankers, Senior Executives of Anil Ambani Group in Rs17,000-crore Loan Fraud Probe: Reports).
Until then, far from anticipating trouble, Anil Ambani was on way to making a dramatic comeback. The share prices of Reliance Infra and Reliance Power were soaring; he activated his 2017 tie-up with Dassault Aviation and announced plans to build luxury business jets and was all set to bag important defence deals. Friendly media was even fawning about how this showed that he was back in the race with brother Mukesh (Anil Ambani races ahead of Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Infra teams up with French firm to build...).
Clearly, there was a trigger for the ED action. The question is what was it, and how serious is the investigation?
Why Now?
The turning point may have been the explosive podcast interview of industrialist Vijay Mallya who accused Indian agencies of targeting him, despite lenders recovering over Rs14,000 crore—more than what he owed (Read: Flying High with a Podcast: Can Vijay Mallya Rewrite the Script on His Bankruptcy). Mr Mallya, Nirav Modi and a few others have faced the full wrath of the State, while the far bigger default, by comparison, of the politically-connected Anil Ambani group was left untouched. That appears to be changing after the podcast received a hugely sympathetic response from people.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group (ADAG), with liabilities exceeding Rs1 lakh crore at one point, was a slow-moving disaster that was ignored by regulators, auditors and investigative agencies for almost a decade. There was barely any scrutiny or enforcement action, despite glaring red flags—shell companies, missing funds, failed initial public offers (IPOs), unpaid investors and defaults.
Even when Anil Ambani famously told a UK court, in 2020, that he had a net worth of zero, was bankrupt and had sold jewellery to repay debt, the Indian State did not blink and it was business as usual for him. That was a case filed by Chinese banks over a US$900mn (million) loan to RCom, backed by his personal guarantee.(Read: Anil Ambani Tells London Court That He Has sold Jewellery and Taken Loans from His Mother and Son).
Too Big To Nail?
Anil Ambani inherited a business empire spanning telecom (RCom was the second largest telecom company), power, media, finance, infrastructure and defence equipment, after the acrimonious split with Mukesh Ambani in 2005. In Jaunary 2008, Reliance Power raised Rs11,700 crore through, what was until then, India’s biggest and most controversial IPO which opened to a disastrous listing. The group, which was once valued at a spectacular Rs1.7 lakh crore, has been unravelling in plain sight over the past decade, with very little discussion or analysis in the media. This was due to Anil Ambani’s propensity to file defamation suits to counter criticism.
That changed decisively in July 2025 when ED conducted raids at 35 locations. The enforcement agency alleged that Rs3,000 crore had been routed through shell companies between 2017 and 2019, with bribes paid to YES Bank officials. A Rs17,000-crore loan fraud and money laundering charge in connection with RCom), RCFL) and RHFL is also under investigation. Investigators are probing the role of major banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI, Axis, HDFC, UCO and Punjab & Sind Bank and one person has been arrested.
And yet, less than a week earlier Canara Bank inexplicably reversed its classification of the RCom account as a fraud after the group filed a lawsuit. Perhaps, it failed to read the signals, but SBI made a similar charge immediately after, perhaps aware that ED was questioning the due diligence of banks in granting loans. Here’s a rundown of the implosions at ADAG and what remains:
1.Reliance Communications (RCom): Once India’s second-largest telco, RCom filed for insolvency with Rs47,251 crore in claims by creditors. Its subsidiary RCIL was acquired by a Mukesh Ambani entity for just Rs456 crore. Recovery: barely 1%. It now faces a probe by the central bureau of investigation (CBI), after banks have declared it a fraud account.
The company, says our columnist Ranganathan V, had masqueraded as a mortgage lender, while operating like a Ponzi scheme (Read: Reliance Home Finance: Analysis of a Fully Audited Ponzi Scheme! -Part 3). ADAG, as always, has challenged the SEBI order. However, insolvency proceedings against RCom were initiated and, although Authum Investments won a bid to acquire it, a new insolvency petition was admitted in 2025 leaving it unresolved.
3.Reliance Capital Limited (RCL): In November 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), finally, superseded the RCL board after years of inaction. By then, RCL’s outside liabilities were a massive Rs76,000 crore and it had a negative net worth of Rs15,912 crore (Reliance Capital: Accommodative Accounting Aids Promoter Pilfering with Panache?).
Despite having valuable assets like two insurance companies and a securities firm the company unravelled, because banks seem complicit in allowing unchecked pilferage, even while losses mounted. The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) eventually penalised its statutory auditors, but regulators like RBI, SEBI, ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) and the debenture trustees who failed to act in time, have remained unscathed (Read: Reliance Capital: Should NFRA Net the Big Fish in the Imbroglio?).
In 2024, IndusInd International Holdings Limited (IIHL) acquired RCL at Rs9,650 crore which was shamefully below the company’s liquidation value of Rs13,158 crore and ‘fair value’ of Rs16,696 crore.
4.Vidarbha Industries Power Limited (VIPL): It had a 600MW (megawatt) thermal power plant at Nagpur and was acquired by Adani Power earlier this year for Rs4,000 crore against an admitted debt of Rs6,753 crore, with a part of the exposure converted to equity.
5.Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (RBNL): This relatively small but higih profile company was acquired by Sapphire Media Ltd at Rs261 crore in February 2023, against an admitted debt of nearly Rs1,000 crore, and nearly Rs686 crore written off.
6.Reliance Naval Engineering (RNEL): This company was admitted to insolvency in January 2020 and acquired by Hazel Mercantile in March 2022, after settlement of arbitration claims and a payout of Rs400 crore.
7.Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra): It is one of the two viable ADAG group companies and is into the power and engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) business. RInfra saw its stock price jump after it exited insolvency proceedings, cut debt and had some arbitration wins. However, it remains financially precarious and mired in litigation with concerns about governance issues.
8.Reliance Power: Is profitable and reported a net profit of Rs3,090 crore in FY24-25 after drastic debt reduction, raising funds through a preferential issue and the sale of assets including a 1,200MW hydro project in 2023,and a 45MW wind project in March 2024. The recent ED action has impacted its stock price in a big way.
ADAG also has cluster of small companies, including Reliance MediaWorks, Reliance Defence, Reliance Defence Technologies and Reliance Aerostructure (part of the Dassault joint venture --JV). The latter recently announced plans to manufacture Falcon 2000 jets in India.
What is the future of the Anil Ambani group and its many companies? The answer depends on whether the headline-making investigations are serious or this is only a show of action that ends in long-drawn litigation with inconclusive results. Let’s not forget that Mehul Choksi (Gitanjali Gems), the Sandesara family (Sterling Biotech) and the Jatin Mehta family (of Suraj Diamonds) remain comfortably abroad for the past decade -- only Nirav Modi is in a UK jail.
The ADAG collapse is not just about a flamboyant billionaire’s downfall. It is a mirror to how India’s regulatory ecosystem protects the powerful—until a scandal becomes politically untenable. If the investigative heat does not lead to action or extend to bank boards, credit rating firms, trustees and regulators, it will become one more case study of India’s pathetic enforcement.
Time DELAYS or going SLOW on Investigations is the unwritten RULE, used by ruling GOI indirectly through RBI SEBI FM ED so that their friendly LOOTERS go unpunished by Courts!
GOI the biggest litigant in CRORES of cases from District Sessions to State HC to SC, uses DELAY TOOLS so biggest of CRIMINALS can loot, scoot & go unpunished by law (if they are on Ruling dispensation side)
Unfortunately this us the biggest TRAGEDY of our Democracy, where smallest of crimes get punishes & BIGGEST CRIMINALS enjoy life
All we know
Now I request the govt. Infra and power are doing business
If it is so Then allow the business
If both the companies are in business means , don't write like this. If business is not happening in both Then your article good. But if the business is happening Then don't write like this. You can't doone business Then don't spoil,investors will panic, write only if it TRUE, I appreciate your article provided if it isTRUE, otherwise you are wrong, fir the sake of writing don't do
Such a biased article. I mean you are even accusing Anil for VIPL. Shame on you. VIPL was snatched in day light robbery by Ganda Adani. Have some mind to read through it
It's just another case only
Because Rcom assets acquired by mukesh Ambani and Reliance Capital assets acquired by hindujas.
Just this case is one more joyful game
Very educative article on the biggest con industrialist of India.. large scale fund diversions and siphoning has always been alleged but no action taken.
Though ED may just be following its laid procedure of interrogating accused persons. A few months or years later a charge sheet will follow, during which time this group will come up with more Ponzi schemes.
If ED is indeed serious, Ambani and his two stooges will be cooling their heels in Tihar already.
Why now is a good question.
Perhaps ED now has time available to go after real "chor" as they have stopped hounding the politicians or anyone for that matter who had annoyed the Modi/Shah duo.
Or is it that Mukesh Ambani no longer wishes to shield his brother.
Or is it that this is a good way to deflect attention from Adani's shennanigans.
Nothing happens in India at this level on merits alone unless it has political sanction.
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This means access to other articles (outside the subscription period) are not included.
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GOI the biggest litigant in CRORES of cases from District Sessions to State HC to SC, uses DELAY TOOLS so biggest of CRIMINALS can loot, scoot & go unpunished by law (if they are on Ruling dispensation side)
Unfortunately this us the biggest TRAGEDY of our Democracy, where smallest of crimes get punishes & BIGGEST CRIMINALS enjoy life
Now I request the govt. Infra and power are doing business
If it is so Then allow the business
If both the companies are in business means , don't write like this. If business is not happening in both Then your article good. But if the business is happening Then don't write like this. You can't doone business Then don't spoil,investors will panic, write only if it TRUE, I appreciate your article provided if it isTRUE, otherwise you are wrong, fir the sake of writing don't do
Because Rcom assets acquired by mukesh Ambani and Reliance Capital assets acquired by hindujas.
Just this case is one more joyful game
Though ED may just be following its laid procedure of interrogating accused persons. A few months or years later a charge sheet will follow, during which time this group will come up with more Ponzi schemes.
If ED is indeed serious, Ambani and his two stooges will be cooling their heels in Tihar already.
Perhaps ED now has time available to go after real "chor" as they have stopped hounding the politicians or anyone for that matter who had annoyed the Modi/Shah duo.
Or is it that Mukesh Ambani no longer wishes to shield his brother.
Or is it that this is a good way to deflect attention from Adani's shennanigans.
Nothing happens in India at this level on merits alone unless it has political sanction.