India's Financial Crime Agency has frozen 75 billion rupees (US$ 853 million) worth of properties linked to companies of the Reliance Anil Ambani Group as part of a money-laundering probe, it said in a statement on Monday. The troubled conglomerate is owned by the younger brother of billionaire Mukesh Ambani. Reliance Infrastructure, another Anil Ambani Group company, said there was no impact on its operations, shareholders and employees from the ED's action. Investigators have detected the "fraudulent diversion of public money" by entities including Reliance Group-controlled companies Reliance Home Finance Ltd and Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd, the ED said. ED said Reliance Communications Ltd and its group companies diverted more than 136 billion rupees through loan "evergreening", a practice where new loans are given to stressed borrowers to enable them to repay existing loans.
