The Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a money laundering case against industrialist Anil Ambani and Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) on Wednesday in connection with an alleged Rs 2,929-crore fraud on State Bank of India (SBI).
The case was filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a first information report (FIR) filed in August 2025 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Earlier, the CBI booked RCom and Anil Ambani, besides unnamed public servants and others for allegedly defrauding the SBI. It also raided and searched Anil Ambani’s Mumbai residence and RCom’s corporate offices, as part of its investigation.
The CBI’s FIR was based on a complaint by Jyoti Kumar, deputy general manager of SBI’s Mumbai branch, who alleged that a forensic audit conducted on October 15, 2020, had revealed irregularities in loan utilisation by Anil Ambani’s companies.
Acting on the CBI case, the ED has widened the scope of its investigation by writing to nearly 20 public and private sector banks to obtain details of loans sanctioned to Anil Ambani-led Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) group companies. The agency has also sought credit assessments carried out at the time of sanctioning loans, even as it investigates whether bank funds were diverted or laundered through shell entities and offshore channels.
The ED has questioned several senior Reliance ADA group executives. “On Tuesday, Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, an aide of Anil Ambani, appeared before the ED once again. Jhunjhunwala and other officials had previously been summoned in connection with a larger Rs 17,000-crore loan fraud probe involving multiple Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) group companies.
The fresh case filed by the ED on Wednesday has added to at least three other money laundering cases already filed against Ambani, his companies and associates in relation to alleged bank frauds earlier.
Anil Ambani has strongly denied all allegations and his spokesperson described accusations against him as “baseless”, claiming that Anil Ambani had been “selectively singled out.”
“The complaint filed by SBI pertains to matters dating back more than 10 years. At the relevant time, Anil Ambani was a non-executive director of the company, with no involvement in its day-to-day management,” the spokesperson said, after CBI raids in August 2025.
The latest ED action came at a time when investigative agencies have intensified their probe into alleged bank loan frauds linked to corporate borrowers.
Earlier in September 2025, Bank of Baroda (BoB) classified loan accounts of RCom and the company’s former director Anil Ambani as “fraud”, making it the third state-run bank to take such action against debt-laden RCom and its former promoter.
Anil Ambani, who stepped down as director of RCom years ago, was explicitly named in BoB’s notice in his capacity as the company’s former promoter and director. A few days ago, the bank took the action after a similar action was taken by two other major public sector banks, namely the SBI and the Bank of India (BoI).
In June 2025, SBI had tagged RCom’s loan accounts as ‘fraudulent’, while on August 24, 2025, Bank of India (BoI) classified RCom’s accounts as “fraudulent” and included Anil Ambani in its order.