After Centre alerted states on his fraud in 2019, Donor No 1 Santiago Martin went on electoral bonds buying spree

According to data released by the EC, Future Gaming and Hotels purchased bonds worth Rs 1,300 crore between 2019 and 2024.

The Indian Express has learnt that in a letter dated September 23, 2019, the Home Ministry’s CS (Centre-State) Division specifically mentioned the states of West Bengal, Maharashtra and Punjab where Martin was allegedly operating Future Gaming & Hotels. He ran Big Star G Services Pvt LTd in the other states.

The EC data show that in October 2019, Future Gaming & Hotels started purchasing a series of electoral bonds, totalling Rs 190 crore in just that month alone.

Overall, the EC data show, Rs 12,769 crore worth electoral bonds were cashed by various political parties in the last five years with the BJP cornering 47.46 per cent of the total value followed by TMC at 12.60 per cent and Congress with 11.13 per cent. The data was released by the Election Commission on Thursday following a Supreme Court directive.

The Ministry of Home Affairs’ warning to states about Martin noted that it had received complaints with “serious allegations” against Martin and his lottery firms. They included:

* Martin was residing in Kolkata, had offices in all neighbouring states and was “illegally” selling lotteries in states like West Bengal where the business was prohibited — and that no GST was being deposited in the state.

* He was printing an unspecified number of tickets from printing presses without the knowledge of the state government.

* He was involved in many cases of fraud, being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and had “unaccounted income of more than 1,000 crores towards manipulation of prize winning tickets”.

* He had committed various irregularities in Kerala which were brought to the notice of the MHA by the state. Subsequently, the MHA banned Martin’s Sikkim State Lottery in Kerala.

* The lottery tickets were not serially numbered and were sold by binding a particular number in bundles, thus violating the Lotteries (Regulation) Rules of 2010.

The MHA also asked the states to individually submit information on Martin’s lottery business on an urgent basis.

The Indian Express had earlier reported that the Enforcement Directorate had begun a money laundering probe against Future Gaming in early 2019. By July that year, it had attached assets worth over Rs 250 crore belonging to the company. On April 2, 2022, the ED attached movable assets worth Rs 409.92 crore in the case.

On April 7, five days after the attachment of these assets, Future Gaming bought Rs 100 crore in electoral bonds.

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