Indian investigators have seized a US$410 million luxury condominium building owned by Anil Ambani as part of a widening investigation into alleged bank fraud by the tycoon.
The Enforcement Directorate, India’s anti-money-laundering agency, said on Wednesday that it had provisionally taken Ambani’s 17-storey property, known as “Abode,” in the upscale Pali Hill neighbourhood.
The agency alleged Ambani had defaulted on over 400 billion rupees (US$4.4 billion) worth of loans from Indian and foreign banks.
Ambani runs Reliance Group and is the younger brother of Mukesh Ambani , Asia’s richest man. The two split the empire after their father’s death in 2002.
The 66-year-old has faced financial distress for years, defaulting on bank loans and other debt since at least 2016. Most recently, his name surfaced in documents related to Jeffrey Epstein , which showed that he had met the disgraced financier on several occasions to discuss business, politics and women.
The federal agency said the home was transferred into a private family trust in a restructuring designed to “shield it” from Ambani’s personal liabilities, mainly claims tied to guarantees he had given to bankers for company loans.