Good news for Anil Ambani as SAT stays Rs 250000000 SEBI fine against him on…

Anil Ambani had challenged the SEBI's August 22 ruling against him in the SAT after the regulator imposed a fine on the beleaguered billionaire and barred him and 24 other entities.

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has provided partial relief to Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani by putting a conditional stay on the Rs 25 crore fine imposed on him by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Earlier, in August this year, the market regulator had imposed a Rs 25 crore penalty on Anil Ambani over his alleged involvement in the Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) fund-diversion case.

The SAT has stayed the SEBI penalty on Ambani, albeit on one condition. The Reliance Group chairman has been directed to deposit 50 percent of the penalty amount within a month.

Anil Ambani had challenged the SEBI’s August 22 ruling against him in the SAT after the regulator imposed a fine on the beleaguered billionaire and barred him and 24 other entities, including former officials of Reliance Home Finance, from the securities market for five years for diverting funds from RHFL.

Additionally, the SEBI also imposed a 6-month ban on RHFL from the securities market and imposed a Rs 6 lakh fine on the company. In a 222-page order, SEBI claimed that Anil Ambani has siphoned funds from RHFL under the guise of loans given to entities linked to him. The market regulator also said that key managerial personnel in his company, had helped Ambani to carry out the fraud.

According to SEBI, RHFL’s Board of Directors had issued directives to halt these fraudulent lending practices and regularly reviewed corporate loans, but Anil Ambani misused his position as ‘chairperson of the ADA group’ and his significant indirect shareholding in the holding company of RHFL to orchestrate the fraudulent scheme.