Meet 'Lottery King' Santiago Martin who topped electoral bonds' top donors list

Chennai: Santiago Martin, who has emerged to be the top buyer of electoral bonds as per the Election Commission, has been under the ED radar for years. Also known as the 'Lottery king', Martin's Future Games and Hotel Services bought electoral bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore. Who is Martin? And what are his business interests? Martin, based in Coimbatore in western Tamil Nadu, is said to have started his life as a 'labourer,' and has a rags-to-riches story behind him.

Although the lottery was banned in Tamil Nadu in 2003, many people still remember the name 'Martin Lottery,' for all the wrong reasons such as raids by authorities. In 2019, an accountant of a college in Coimbatore run by Martin was found dead following questioning by income tax authorities.

His company, the Future Gaming Solutions India Pvt Ltd, is the master distributor of Sikkim lotteries. Apart from owning a massive business empire for a pretty long time, Martin is known to have friends in several political parties in many states including Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Martin has been under the scrutiny of Central agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department. In 2023, ED froze assets worth about Rs 457 crore over an alleged loss of over Rs 900 crore to the Sikkim government by way of a fraudulent lottery sale in Kerala.

The action by ED in connection with money laundering stemmed from a CBI chargesheet filed against Martin and others for alleged offences relating to sale of the Sikkim government lotteries in Kerala.

"Martin and his associate companies and entities made unlawful gains with a corresponding loss to the government of Sikkim to the extent of Rs 910 crore on account of inflating the prize winning tickets claim for the period from 01.04.2009 to 31.08.2010," the ED had said. Assets of Martin and those linked to him have been seized by the ED in other cases as well.

The premises of Aadhav Arjuna, son-in-law of Martin, were among the places searched by the ED in Tamil Nadu as part of a probe into alleged illegal sand mining in the state. Arjuna, the president of the Basketball Federation of India was recently appointed the deputy general secretary of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi.