 "Santiago Martin")
The electoral bond data released by the State Bank of India (SBI) revealed that political parties encashed bonds worth Rs 12,769 crore in the last five years. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received nearly Rs 6,060.52 crore in total. Since January this year, the BJP has encashed bonds worth Rs 202 crore.
While the data revealed a lot about the donations, a lesser-known name made headlines. Santiago Martin has turned out to be the biggest donor in the country. Known as the "Lottery King," Martin's company, Future Gaming and Hotel Services, purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore between April 2019 and January 2024, according to the data released by the Election Commission.
Who is Santiago Martin?
The Martin Charitable Trust website states that Santiago Martin is the founder and chairman of the Martin Group of Companies. It goes on to read, "The story of his life is one that epitomises the success of a man who built nothing into an empire."
Santiago worked as a labourer in Myanmar before returning to India. Martin came to India from Myanmar in 1988 and started a lottery business. He founded a company, "Martin Lottery Agencies Ltd," in Coimbatore.
He introduced a two-digit lottery system that earned him his fame and the nickname 'Lottery Martin'.
After Coimbatore, Martin furthered his operations in Karnataka and Kerala. Later, he expanded to the northeastern states of Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Maharashtra.
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Apart from the lottery business, Martin expanded into other domains such as real estate, construction, alternative energy, visual media entertainment, textiles, hospitality, health care, education, software and technology, property development, agro, online gaming, casinos, and building materials.
Controversies
In 2008, Martin was accused of defrauding the Sikkim government of over Rs 4,500 crore. He donated Rs 2 crore to the CPI(M) mouthpiece, Deshabhimani. According to an Indian Express report, this happened when CPI (M) was going through an internal tussle between Pinarayi Vijayan and V S Achuthanandan.
Later, Martin built ties with Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) in Tamil Nadu. In 2011, he produced a Tamil film whose screenwriter was former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. Martin invested Rs 20 crore in the movie.
In the J Jayalalithaa regime, he was arrested on land-grabbing charges. The Madras High Court quashed his detention, and he was released on bail.
According to a Quint report, the Enforcement Directorate in 2019, launched an investigation against Martin. The report states that the company and its sub-distributors had "criminally conspired" to retain unsold lottery tickets in Sikkim illegally and claim top prizes on unsold tickets to gain money to the tune of Rs 910 crore.
Further, in 2022, a money laundering probe against Martin's company was initiated by ED, and Rs 409.92 crore worth of its assets were seized. In 2023, another Rs 457 crore worth of assets were seized. In October 2023, the Income Tax raided Martin's properties in Coimbatore in a parallel probe.
