Indian billionaire Anil Ambani has been barred from investing in the stock market until December, authorities said Friday, in a settlement of a long-running regulatory inquiry into some of his companies. The settlement was agreed between Ambani, ranked as the world's 36th richest man last year, and the regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which has been probing the source of investments by his firms since last year.
Two of Ambani's group companies, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL), are also banned from investing in stock markets until December 2012, Sebi said in an order released Friday. Sebi had issued notices against Ambani and his group companies in last June as part of an investigation into the possible breach of trading rules in securities. Investigations found that Reliance Infrastructure and RNRL "misrepresented nature of investments" and profit and loss statements in annual reports between 2007 and 2009, Sebi said.