SBI to tag RCom loan account as ‘fraud’, names Anil Ambani in report to RBI

The State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to classify the loan account of beleaguered telecom firm Reliance Communications as “fraud” and report the name of its erstwhile director — Anil Ambani — to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Reliance Communications, in a regulatory filing, said that it had received a letter dated June 23, 2025 from the SBI to this effect. SBI has decided to report the loan account of the company as “fraud” and report his name, it said. As per the RBI guidelines, after a bank classifies an account as ‘fraud’, the lender should then report the fraud to RBI within 21 days of detection and also report the case to CBI/police.

According to the filing, RCom and its subsidiaries received a total loan of Rs 31,580 crore from banks.

SBI, in the letter sent to RCom, said it had found deviation in utilisation of the loans involving complex web of fund movements across multiple group entities.

“We have taken cognisance of the responses to our show cause notice and after due examination of the same, it is concluded that sufficient reasons have not been provided by the respondent to explain the non-adherence to the agreed terms and conditions of the loan documents or the irregularities observed in the conduct of the account of RCL to the satisfaction of the bank,” it said.

Accordingly, the letter said, the Fraud Identification Committee of the bank has decided to classify the loan account of RCL as fraud.

As per the report of the committee out of the total loan, Rs 13,667.73 crore, about 44 per cent, was utilised for the repayment of loans and other obligations. An amount of Rs 12,692.31 crore, 41 per cent of total loan, was utilised to pay connected parties.

According to the filing, Rs 6,265.85 crore was used for repaying other bank loans and Rs 5,501.56 crore was paid to related or connected parties which were not aligned with sanctioned purposes.

Further, a Rs 250-crore loan from Dena Bank (meant for statutory dues) was not utilised as per the sanctioned use. The loan was diverted to RCIL as an ICD.