ED seizes huge cash from office of biggest electoral bond donor, 'lottery king' Santiago Martin in Chennai

Santiago Martin earlier came to light during the row over electoral bonds. He was the single biggest donor to political parties with over Rs 1,300 crore in electoral bonds.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday seized cash currency of Rs 8.8 crore from the corporate office of Chennai-based 'lottery king' Santiago Martin, officials said. Providing details about the searches, the ED officials said that the searches were carried out in multiple states as part of a money laundering investigation against the 'lottery king'.

The searches were conducted after the Madras High Court recently allowed the ED to proceed against Martin. Earlier, the Tamil Nadu Police had decided to close the predicate or primary FIR against him and others in a case related to the seizure of "unaccounted" Rs 7.2 crore from his Chennai home. The lower court had accepted the Tamil Nadu Police's plea. 

Subsequently, last month, the Madras High Court allowed the federal agency case against Martin and his linked persons to go on as it set aside a lower court order. 

The ED officials further said that as part of a "comprehensive" action against his business empire, at least 20 premises linked to Martin, his son-in-law Aadhav Arjun and associates were searched in Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Faridabad in Haryana, Ludhiana in Punjab and Kolkata in West Bengal.

Notably, Martin's company Future Gaming Solutions Pvt Ltd was the single biggest donor to political parties with over Rs 1,300 crore in now-scrapped electoral bonds. It is not the first time that the premises of Martin have been searched by the ED. 

Last year, the federal agency attached assets worth about Rs 457 crore in a case against Martin linked to an alleged loss of over Rs 900 crore to the Sikkim government by fraudulent sale of the state lottery in Kerala. Future Gaming Solutions India Pvt Ltd is the master distributor of Sikkim lotteries and the ED has been investigating Martin, known as 'lottery king' in Tamil Nadu, since 2019.

(With inputs from agencies)