New Delhi, 24 Sept

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), on Monday, imposed a penalty of 1 crore on Jai Anmol Ambani, son of industrialist Anil Ambani for failing to exercise due diligence while approving general-purpose corporate loans (GPCLs) in the Reliance Home Finance case.

The market regulator also imposed a fine of Rs 15 lakh on Krishnan Gopalakrishnan who was the former chief risk officer of Reliance Home Finance for his involvement in the approval process.

Both the top officials of the company have been directed to pay the fine amount within 45 days, as per the SEBI order.

The market regulator in its order added, "Noticee 1, as Non-Executive director of the company, has taken the company in his own direction and has gone overboard in his role as Director. Noticee 1 in doing so, gives a hint of being motivated and definitely not in the interests of the shareholders and has not acted with due care and diligence, and has not maintained high ethical standards."

The SEBI further added that Jai Anmol Ambani who was on the board of two companies namely Reliance Capital and Reliance Home Finance and also a director in the other Reliance ADAG group companies where the funds were onward lent, "did not exercise reasonable due diligence with respect to the entire GPCL lending and the onward lending by these GPCL entities to other Reliance ADAG group companies, including Reliance Capital Limited," it added.

The market regulator said that Gopalkrishnan approved various GPCL loans and he was aware of the major divergences that were recorded in the credit approval memos of various lendings that he had recommended while being the chief risk officer of the company.

In a separate development last month, the SEBI imposed a ban on businessman Anil Ambani, 3 key officials of his company and 23 companies associated with him, from trading in the stock market for a period of five years.

SEBI's investigation had revealed a pattern of financial misconduct orchestrated by Anil Ambani and his associates.

The regulatory body had found that funds were being diverted under the pretext of loans to entities linked to Anil Ambani, leading to severe breaches of financial regulations. -ANI