ED freezes movable, immovable properties worth Rs 457 crore of lottery king Santiago Martin

The Enforcement Directorate has frozen movable and immovable properties worth Rs 457 crore of lottery king Santiago Martin under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The lottery king’s residences and offices were searched on May 11 and 12. 

The agency accused Martin of money laundering, and a case has been registered against Martin and others under PMLA. The ED searched the premises of the registered office of Future Gaming Solutions at Coimbatore, which is the master distributor of Sikkim Lotteries, apart from the residential premises of Santiago Martin, as well as the business and residential premises of his family members in Chennai. 

The money laundering investigation was initiated on the basis of a final report by CBI for various punishable offences relating to sale of lotteries of Sikkim government in the state of Kerala. 

“From the PMLA investigations conducted, it was found that S. Martin and his associate companies & entities had made unlawful gain with a corresponding loss to the Government of Sikkim to the extent of Rs 910 crore on account of inflating the Prize-Winning Tickets claim for the period from 01.04.2009 to 31.08.2010,” the ED stated.

During the course of the search action, several investments of the group concerns were identified and orders were issued under PMLA to freeze movable properties worth Rs. 157.7 crore, including fixed deposits and mutual funds, and immovable property documents worth Rs 299.16 were seized. 

Thus, properties worth Rs 457 crore (approx.) were unearthed as a result of search operations carried out, and the same have been seized/froze against the proceeds of crime, the ED said. 

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