CHENNAI: Coimbatore-based Future Gaming and Hotels Private Limited, headed by lottery baron Santiago Martin, who was investigated multiple times by the Enforcement Directorate and faced several criminal cases in the past, seems to be the highest purchaser of electoral bonds worth Rs. 1,368 crore.
According to the data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday as mandated by Supreme Court, three similar sounding companies, Future Gaming and Hotels PR, Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited and Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Limited, bought electoral bonds worth Rs. 1,208 crore, Rs. 95 crore, and Rs. 65 crore, respectively, in five years.
Bonds purchased by Martin’s company accounted for more than one-tenth (11.25 %) of the total purchase of Rs. 12,155 crore done during the period.
Information from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs available in the public domain showed Santiago Martin as the Managing Director of Future Gaming and Hotels Private Limited. The data released by the ECI pertains to electoral bonds bought between April 12, 2019 and February 15, 2024.
The data shows Martin’s company first started buying the bonds in October 2020. The firm continued to buy them in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and the last transaction was on January 2024. Month-wise purchases showed the firm’s highest purchase in a single month was on January 2022 (Rs 210 crore). In April 2022, the company again bought bonds worth Rs 100 crore.
Owing to various money laundering cases he faced, ED had attached properties belonging to him on multiple occasions. In at least three such instances between December 2021 and July 2022, press releases by the ED said it had attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs. 603 crore belonging to Martin or his associated companies.
The second highest purchase in a month was in October 2021 when the company bought bonds worth Rs. 195 crore. Incidentally, former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K S Alagiri, in December 2021, had alleged that the company had donated money to the tune of Rs. 100 crore to the BJP and demanded an impartial probe as the company was being investigated by agencies like the ED and Income Tax department.
Martin had been lodged in prison in the past. In 2011, he was booked under the Goondas Act by the Coimbatore district administration. He was reportedly booked in 14 cheating and land grab cases at that time.
The website of Martin Charitable Trust hails its founder, Martin, as a ‘lottery king’ who “built nothing into an empire” with a vast network of buyers and sellers of lotteries in many states. Besides lottery, the website says the Martin group of companies has interests in real estate, hospitality and textiles sectors in India and Myanmar.
In 2015, there were reports that Martin’s son Jose Charles Martin had joined Kerala BJP. Martin’s son-in-law Aadhav Arjuna is now a deputy general secretary of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi. Martin is believed to have cordial relationship with several political parties.