NEW DELHI: Former Indian billionaire Anil Ambani’s legal and financial woes are mounting as authorities widen investigations into several companies he once controlled, including allegations that 20.5 billion rupees ($214 million) in corporate loans were misused.
The probes intensified in recent weeks after investigators arrested several former senior executives associated with his once-sprawling business empire. The next hearing in one of the key cases will be on July 13.
A member of one of India’s wealthiest families, Ambani is embroiled in a series of overlapping probes into Reliance Communications Ltd. — once one of India’s largest telecommunications providers — and two financial-services companies, Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd. and Reliance Home Finance Ltd.
These investigations mark the latest issues for the former tycoon, whose dwindling empire has for years been plagued by multibillion-dollar defaults and accusations of wrongdoing. Ambani has consistently distanced himself from the companies under investigation, saying he was not involved in their management or operations.
Ambani’s latest troubles began in mid-2025 when India’s largest lender, State Bank of India Ltd., declared Reliance Communications as a fraudulent account and lodged criminal complaints against both the company and him with the Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s federal investigation agency.
Reliance Communications was pushed into insolvency between 2018 and 2019, while the two lending arms and their parent, Reliance Capital, met the same fate two years later. In 2020, SBI filed a lawsuit to recover dues from personal guarantees Ambani had issued for loans taken out by the company — a case that has dragged on ever since.
Several other banks, as well as the Life Insurance Corporation of India, have since filed criminal complaints against Reliance Communications and the two lending companies. India’s Central Bureau of Investigation claims those business entities bear responsibility for some $8 billion in wrongful losses to lenders.
Anil is the youngest son of Dhirubhai Ambani, the founder of one of India’s most valuable companies, Reliance Industries Ltd. The sprawling conglomerate began as a textiles and commodities trading business in the 1950s and later entered the petrochemicals, telecommunications and natural gas industries. It’s now the country’s largest private-sector enterprise by revenue and among the largest by market capitalization.
After Reliance patriarch Dhirubhai died in 2002, his two sons — Anil and older brother Mukesh Ambani — battled over the ownership and management of the conglomerate. In 2005, the group was split, with Mukesh retaining the textiles, oil, gas and petrochemicals businesses under Reliance Industries, and Anil gaining control of the financial services, telecom and energy assets.
Anil Ambani used to be one of the world’s richest people. But in the years since 2008, Ambani’s wealth has fallen spectacularly.
His net worth from stakes in multiple listed companies stood at $3.7 billion a decade ago. Today the family’s shares in the two remaining listed companies — Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. and Reliance Power Ltd. — have fallen to under $360 million. His brother Mukesh, on the other hand, ranks as Asia’s third-wealthiest businessperson with a net worth of $87 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
