The controversy around the Electoral Bond Scheme (EBS) on Thursday intensified after the Election Commission of India uploaded the SBI data on its website and the data public. The electoral bonds data revealed the top contributors to political parties through the scheme from 2019 to 2024. At the top of the list is Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd. As per reports, Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd is a prominent lottery company headed by Santiago Martin, with contributions amounting to Rs 1,368 crore. Santiago Martin-runed company is the number one donor through the electoral bong scheme that the Supreme Court of India stuck down. Now, the question arises who is Santiago Martin, the highest electoral bond donor? Below is everything you need to know-
Who is Santiago Martin?
As per Martin's foundation's official website, Santiago Martin is the founding chairman of Martin Group of Companies is also known as ‘The Lottery King’. The website says, "Martin is a business tycoon who built a colossal business by printing and selling lottery tickets. He had a modest beginning, where he started as a trader and managed to make a huge business empire that expanded across India and beyond."
The website further revealed that "Before joining the trading world, the Martin Lottery Owner first started his career as a laborer in the Yangon city of Myanmar earning a meager salary to feed his family. Later, he came back to India, where he inaugurated his lottery business in Tamil Nadu in 1988, slowly extending towards Karnataka and Kerala. He later moved his business to the northeast, where he began to handle government lottery schemes. He established Martin Sikkim Lottery, in West Bengal, Punjab, and Maharashtra."
The website further reveals, "He is also the President of All India Federation of Lottery Trade and Allied Industries – an organization engaged for uplifting and infusing credibility to the lottery trade in India. Under his stewardship, his enterprise, Future Gaming Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. became a member of the prestigious World Lottery Association and is expanding into the field of Online Gaming & Casinos and Sports Betting."
Santiago Martin under ED scanner
As per reports, Martin has been on the central agency's ED radar. The Enforcement Directorate has been investigating the company for alleged violation of PMLA law since 2019. They had carried out raids in Coimbatore and Chennai in May 2023. Reports suggest that ED accused Martin and his companies of dealing a Rs 910 crore loss to Sikkim "on account of inflating the prize-winning tickets claim from April 2009 to August 2010.