No evidence against Anil Ambani on Swan Telecom: CBI

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation has told the Supreme Court that it has not found any incriminating evidence against ADAG chairman Anil Ambani in the structuring of companies and transfer of funds to Swan Telecom, which is allegedly one of the main beneficiaries in the 2G spectrum scam.

“The investigation did not reveal any evidence either oral or documentary to inculpate Anil Ambani in the structuring of different companies and transfer of funds,” the agency said in its status report submitted to the Supreme Court on September 29. The report came in response to a note filed by Prashant Bhushan and a petition from Subramanian Swamy.

The CBI said at the time of filing of applications to the Department of Telecom (DoT) for Universal Access Service (UAS) licences, the shareholders of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd included Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd, which held a 91.1%, and Reliance Telecom Ltd, which had the remaining 9.1%.

Further, Zebra Consultants and Parrot Consultant Pvt Ltd were shareholders in Tiger Traders. “All these three companies were holding each other in an interlocking structure,” the agency said. CBI also found that funds invested by Tiger Traders in Swan Telecom were ultimately sourced from ADAE Ventures Pvt Ltd.
On March 2, 2007, there was further investment of Rs 95.50 crore by Tiger Traders in Swan and the funds were sourced from Sonata Investments Ltd. In addition , smaller amounts were transferred to Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd from AAA Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd.

The agency said Anil Ambani and his wife Tina Ambani were the original promoters of AAA Consultancy and ADAR Ventures Pvt Ltd. The couple had transferred the shareholding of these companies to Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd, Zebra Consultants Pvt Ltd and Parrot Consultant Pvt Ltd during March-April , 2006 — almost one year before the Swan’s applications for 13 UAS licences on March 2, 2007.

“As such during the relevant period, when Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd applied for UAS licences and the funds were transferred from these companies to Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd, Anil Ambani and his wife were neither shareholders in these companies nor were associated with the management of these companies ,” CBI said.

On another issue related to a statement by an ICICI Bank official that a cheque of above Rs 10 crore required an approval of Ambani or his wife, CBI said the “observation” was a distorted one as he said that the Ambani couple were signatories to the bank accounts of Tiger Traders, Swan Consultants , ADAE Ventures and AAA Consultancy Services since incorporation. But the statement does not talk about the authority competent to approve the transactions.

“It does not talk about the authority competent to approve those transactions in the company. The Ambani couple had exited from these companies before the relevant period and so the question of approving these transactions is not tenable.

"The investigation has revealed that they had not issued any bank instrument including cheque, RTGS advice , transfer request, etc. which is relevant in the case. The payment of Rs. 95.51 crore by Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd has been made through 10 different advices each for Rs. 10 crore or less. These advices were signed by accused Gautam Doshi and Hari Nair and are part of records relied upon in the case," the CBI said in its status report.

Explaining the method followed in zeroing in on the accused in the 2G scam, the CBI said while fixing criminal liability both the competence and active role played by each accused person have been considered as in other investigations, keeping in mind the best interests of the prosecution in the case. It said in case of each corporate entity, be it Unitech, Swan Telecom, Kalaignar or Reliance Telecom only those "who had the competence to decide and who actually decided was chargesheeted and not the other directors/ share holders/promoters of the company."