How Anil Ambani’s firms have escaped consequences of the fraud tag

ABG Shipyard Ltd.’s Rishi Agarwal, Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd.’s Sanjay Singhal, Videocon Group’s Venugopal Dhoot and Kingfisher Airlines’ Vijay Mallya all faced consequences when bank loans given to their companies went bad. These consequences went well beyond the ‘bad loan’ tag and extended to investigative agencies looking into allegations of fraud and the role promoters played in the loan defaults.

One group that has managed to escape such consequences is the Anil Ambani group of companies.

Over the last two years, loans given to Reliance Communications Ltd., Reliance Infratel Ltd., Reliance Telecom Ltd. and Reliance Home Finance Ltd have turned bad. Forensic audits have been conducted. Regulatory strictures have been passed.

However, bank fraud proceedings remain halted due to various court orders and investigative action is yet to be pursued.

An email sent to the Anil Ambani group on Monday seeking status of fraud proceedings against them was not answered. Bloomberg