Sebi imposes Rs 1 crore fine on Jai Anmol Ambani in Reliance Home Finance case

The regulator alleged that Jai Anmol being a non-executive director on the board of Reliance Home Finance and other Reliance ADAG group companies where the funds were onward lent, did not exercise reasonable due diligence with respect to the entire GPCL(general purpose working capital ) lending and the onward lending by these GPCL entities to other Reliance ADAG group companies including Reliance Capital.

Sebi alleged that Jai Anmol had given approval for unsecured loan of Rs 20 crores to Visa Capital Partners and Rs 20 crore to Accura Production Pvt Ltd.

In his response to Sebi, he submitted that

he could not recollect the context and background of the cited mails. Besides, they were not in the nature of approvals provided by him, but mere acknowledgements of the receipt of the respective trail mails.“…it is clearly evident that Noticee 1 (Jai Anmol Ambani) is misrepresenting with an intent to downplay his role in the entire episode. It is clear that the emails were sent to him with exact word “approval”, thus seeking approval and Noticee 1 responded to both the emails with the same word “okay”, granting his approval,” Sebi said.

The regulator alleged that Jai Anmol was involved in the day to day functioning of the company and was also approving GPCL loans to promoter-related entities.

“… his submission that he was not involved in day-to- day affairs of the Company cannot be accepted,” Sebi said.

Last month, Sebi barred Anil Ambani and 24 other entities from the securities market for five years for allegedly perpetrating what the regulator described as a ‘fraudulent scheme’ that led to diversion of funds from Reliance Home Finance five years ago. It also imposed a penalty of Rs 25 crore on Anil Ambani and restrained him from holding key managerial or directorial roles in any listed company or market intermediary for five years.