Shares of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infra and Reliance Power witnessed a positive movement after the Reliance ADAG Group issued clarification on the allegations by Cobrapost. At the market close, the stocks ended in green after trading in red the whole day. RPower stocks closed at 46.48 and infra shares witnessed a 1% rise to close at 220.48. The development came after the company in a detailed statement termed Cobrapost report malicious. The Anil Ambani group claimed that the report was aimed at tarnishing its reputation and misleading stakeholders.”It described Cobrapost as “a dead platform resurrected as a corporate hit-job — dormant since 2019, with zero journalistic credibility and a 100% track record of agenda-driven stings.”The group alleged that the publication was “a deliberate campaign of calumny, disinformation, and character assassination … aimed at crashing the stock prices, and engineering panic in stock markets to acquire Reliance Group assets.”
The company added that Bahal “engaged in improper and coercive tactics that more than meets the eye,” and called the report “a recycling of old, publicly available information already examined by the CBI, ED, SEBI and other agencies.”The statement said the investigation was “an organised attempt to prejudice a fair trial” and a “desperate attempt for extortion of concessions and other benefits.” Reliance Infrastructure Ltd and Reliance Power Ltd have also filed complaints with SEBI seeking a probe into recent trading patterns in their shares.The group reiterated that “no court or tribunal has found them or any Reliance ADA Group entity guilty of any offence or financial wrongdoing.”
An investigation by Cobrapost, an Indian non-profit news website, has alleged that the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (Reliance ADA Group), led by Anil Ambani and his family, engaged in a “massive financial fraud” worth around ₹28,874 crore by diverting funds borrowed from public sector banks and investors to promoter-linked companies. The Cobrapost report names six listed entities — Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, Reliance Capital Ltd, Reliance Communications Ltd, Reliance Home Finance Ltd, Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd and Reliance Corporate Advisory Services Ltd — as part of the alleged diversion.Cobrapost claims the funds came from bank loans, IPO proceeds and bonds, and were rerouted through a web of domestic and offshore entities.The investigation, it says draws on filings from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, SEBI, NCLT, RBI and various court orders.
Cobrapost claims that $1.53 billion (approx. ₹13,047.50 crores) reached ADA Group companies from overseas sources “in a dubious manner.” It cites a transaction in which Singapore-based Emerging Market Investments & Trading Pte (EMITS) allegedly remitted $750 million to Reliance Innoventure Pvt Ltd, the holding company of the ADA Group, before being dissolved along with its subsidiaries.Cobrapost editor Aniruddha Bahal said, “We discovered a ₹28,000 crore diversion and $ 1.5 billion coming from offshore accounts in a very dodgy way....... Total erosion of public wealth is ₹3,38,212 crore including loss of market cap and fraudulent loans.”The report also recalls the acquisition of a luxury yacht by Anil Ambani in 2008.Commenting on the report, activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan said, “This country is being systematically allowed to be looted and plundered by big corporate houses like ADAG.... I don’t have an iota of doubt that banks were aware.”He added, “So many people have been arrested for lesser crimes, but someone who has siphoned ₹40,000 crore is roaming scot-free.”