On Thursday (14th), the Election Commission published the data on the purchase of electoral bonds for political donations in India between April 2019 and January 2024.
One of the largest buyers was a company named Future Gaming and Hotel Services, owned by scam-tainted Santiago Martin. Popularly known as ‘lottery king’, Martin has been under the watch of the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department.
OpIndia has reported about the links of the scam-tainted businessman with the likes of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
It was reported in January 2023 that Santiago Martin’s son-in-law Aadhav Arjuna was roped in by the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham as the chief election strategist of the party in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
At that time, controversial ‘journalist’ Savukku Shankar had tweeted, “Sources: DMK finds its own version of PK. DMK has decided to place Arjun, Son In Law of Lottery Martin as the man in charge of 2024 polls. Like Sunil & Prasanth Kishore, Sabs believes that Arjun will be the go-getter for DMK for 2024.”
A”rjun is known to conduct illegal technical surveillance, phone interceptions etc from a war room. Interestingly the surveillance was mostly on DMK Ministers to monitor collection. With him at the helm of affairs on DMK he will be having a say in candidate selection and act as a think tank for DMK add sources,” he further added.
Arjuna is believed to have close ties with the son-in-law of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Sabareesan. However, in February this year, he joined the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) as the Deputy General Secretary.
It must be mentioned that VCK is an ally of Congress in the I.N.D.I. Alliance. Arjuna claims to have not inherited the riches of his scam-tainted father Santiago Martin and is a ‘self-made entrepreneur.’
On 9th March this year, the Enforcement Directorate raided his house in Teynampet in Chennai in connection to sand mining racket in Tamil Nadu. He is expected to be fielded by VCK as a Lok Sabha constituency.
Santiago Martin and his ‘lottery scam’
Santiago Martin is accused of causing a loss of ₹910,29,87,566 (~ ₹910.29 crores) to the Sikkim government through the fraudulent sale of lottery tickets in the State of Kerala between April 1, 2009 and August 31, 2010.
“Martin and his associate companies and entities made unlawful gains with a corresponding loss to the government of Sikkim to the extent of ₹ 910 crore on account of inflating the prize-winning tickets claim for the period from 01.04.2009 to 31.08.2010,” the ED said in a statement in May 2023.
At that time, the central agency seized his movable properties (mutual funds and fixed deposits) worth ₹157.7 crores and documents of immovable properties to the tune of ₹299.16 crores.
In December 2021, the Enforcement Directorate attached ₹19.59 crore worth of his properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Two years earlier in 2019, raids were conducted by the IT Department on 70 premises of ‘Lottery Martin’ across the country.
A former daily-wage labourer in Yangon in Myanmar, Santiago Martin went on to establish a ₹7000 crore ‘lottery’ business. He has been under the radar of investigative agencies since 2011 for financial fraud and money laundering.