A day after Indian Industrialist Anil Ambani appeared before the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) office, his wife Tina Ambani appeared before the central agency on Tuesday, july 4, 2023, in connection with an investigation linked to the alleged contravention of the foreign exchange law, an official from the anti-money laundering agency said.
The details of the case are not clear however he appeared to record his statement in a case of a violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act. However the case is related to alleged undisclosed assets belonging to Ambanis abroad.
Mr. Anil Ambani, chairman of the Reliance ADA Group, was seen arriving at the anti-money laundering agency’s Ballard Estate office in south Mumbai.
On April 5, this year, the Bombay High Court had continued an interim stay on the show-cause notice and penalty issued to Mr. Ambani by the Income Tax (IT) department under the Black Money Act till further orders.
On August 8, 2022, the IT department issued a notice to Mr. Ambani allegedly he evaded ₹420 crore in taxes on undisclosed funds of more than ₹814 crore held in two Swiss bank accounts. According to this, he is liable to be prosecuted under provisions of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Imposition of Tax Act which has a maximum sentence of 10 years with fine, the IT notice said. The department charged Mr Ambani with “wilful” evasion, saying he “intentionally” did not disclose his foreign bank account details and financial interests.
IT officials have assessed Mr Ambani’s total value of undisclosed funds in the two Swiss Bank accounts to be ₹ 8,14,27,95,784 (₹814 crore) and tax payable on this amount is ₹4,20,29,04,040 (₹420 crore).
In 2020, Mr. Ambani had appeared before the central agency, in a money laundering case in connection with the Yes Bank loan kickbacks case. ED had alleged that Mr Ambani’s company had received loans from the Yes Bank during arrested founder Rana Kapoor’s tenure and is among the biggest non-performing assets.
