The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted fresh searches against Chennai-based 'lottery king' and Future Gaming CEO Santiago Martin and his son-in-law Aadhav Arjuna, who is also the deputy general secretary of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), as part of a money laundering investigation, sources said.
Martin is the single biggest donor to political parties with over Rs 1,300 crore in electoral bonds, PTI reported.
The action came after the Madras High Court recently allowed the ED to proceed against Martin, as the Tamil Nadu Police had decided to close the predicate or primary FIR against him and a few others. A lower court also accepted this police plea.
The raids were carried out Chennai and Coimbatore, with officials searching various locations linked to the two.
Last year, the federal agency attached assets worth about Rs 457 crore in a case against Martin, which was linked to an alleged loss of over Rs 900 crore to the Sikkim government by fraudulent sale of the state lottery in Kerala.
Future Gaming Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. is the master distributor of Sikkim lotteries, and the ED has been investigating Martin since 2019.
Martin recently made news after it came to light through Election Commission data that Future Gaming was the largest purchaser of electoral bonds worth more than Rs 1,300 crore between 2019 and 2024.
The Madras High Court last month allowed the ED case against Martin and his linked persons to go on as it set aside a lower court order which had accepted a closure report filed by the Chennai Police crime branch in a case related to the seizure of "unaccounted" Rs 7.2 crore from his Chennai home.
