Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor’s residence raided by ED in Mumbai

New Delhi, Mar 06: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the Mumbai residence of Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor on Friday night, a day after the crisis-hit bank was placed under a moratorium with withdrawals capped at Rs 50,000.

They said the raid is being carried out at his Samudra Mahal residence in the western metropolis. The action is being conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and is aimed at collecting more evidence, the officials said.

The central agency is also probing Kapoor's role in connection with the disbursal of a loan to a corporate entity and the subsequent alleged kickbacks reportedly received in his wife's accounts. Other alleged irregularities are also under the agency's scanner, they added.

The Reserve Bank on Thursday imposed a moratorium on the capital-starved Yes Bank, capping withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account and superseded the board of the private sector lender with immediate effect.

Yes Bank will not be able to grant or renew any loan or advance, make any investment, incur any liability or agree to disburse any payment.

As per RBI's draft reconstruction scheme, State Bank of India will pick up 49 per cent stake in the crisis-ridden Yes Bank under a government-approved bailout plan.

The raids come on a day finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had spoken about Yes Bank's funding of stressed corporate such as DHFL as one of the reasons for its failure.

Rana Kapoor joined Bank of America (BoA) as a management trainee in 1980. He worked at BoA for at least 16 years where he managed corporate, government and financial institution clients.

In September 2018, Yes Bank announced that they had ordered Kapoor to step down from his CEO position in January 2019.

In July 2019, the Times of India reported that with a 78% drop in the Yes Bank share price since August 2018, Kapooor's net worth had fallen by over a billion to $377 million under RBI scanner.

(with PTI inputs)