New Delhi: Investigative portal Cobrapost on Thursday alleged Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group had committed a
massive financial fraud exceeding Rs 41,921 crore through diversion of funds from group companies since 2006 - a charge the group denied as a malicious campaign aimed at crashing stock prices.
Cobrapost claimed that about Rs 28,874 crore raised through bank loans, IPO proceeds, and bonds was siphoned from listed Group firms, including Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Home Finance, Reliance Commercial Finance, and Reliance Corporate Advisory Services, to promoter-linked companies.
Citing its investigation, it also alleged that an additional USD 1.535 billion (Rs 13,047 crore) was routed into India “in a fraudulent manner” through offshore entities in Singapore, Mauritius, Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands, the US, and the UK, using a network of subsidiaries and shell firms. Cobrapost claimed that a Singapore-based company, Emerging Market Investments & Trading Pte (EMITS), received USD 750 million from a “mysterious benefactor”, NexGen Capital, and later transferred the amount to Reliance Innoventures, the Reliance Group’s holding company, before being dissolved - a transaction it says “could amount to money laundering”.
The report cites violations of the Companies Act, FEMA, PMLA, SEBI Act, and Income Tax Act, and says its findings are based on filings and orders from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, SEBI, NCLT, RBI, and foreign jurisdictions.
It also alleged misuse of corporate funds for personal luxury purchases, including a USD 20 million yacht reportedly bought by Anil Ambani in 2008 through a listed group company.
In response, the Reliance Group dismissed the report as a recycled, agenda-driven corporate hit job by a “dead
platform resurrected” by entities with direct commercial interest to acquire the group’s assets.
It said the allegations were based on “old, publicly available information already examined by the CBI, ED, SEBI and
other agencies”.
Condemning the report as “a malicious campaign to tarnish its reputation and mislead stakeholders”, the group described Cobrapost as “a dead platform resurrected as a corporate hit-job. Dormant since 2019, Cobrapost has zero journalistic credibility and a 100 per cent track record of agenda-driven stings”.