‘Lottery King’ Santiago Martin’s assets worth Rs 19.59 crore attached by ED in money-laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday, December 23, provisionally attached ‘Lottery King’ Santiago Martin's immovable assets worth Rs 19.59 crore in connection with a lottery scam. It had earlier attached properties worth Rs 258 crore of the businessman. With the present attachment, the total attachment in the case has reached Rs 277.59 crore.

The attached properties consist of various immovable properties in the form of vacant lands located in Tamil Nadu, as reported by Economic Times. The charge sheet was filed by the CBI's Kochi office against the accused under various sections of the IPC and the Lotteries (Regulation) Act of 1998, under the implication that Martin had cheated the Sikkim government to the tune of Rs 4,500 crore by not depositing the face value of the lottery tickets in the exchequer from 2005.

During the course of the investigation, the federal probe agency found that the partners of Ms MJ Associates, Santiago Martin and N Jayamurugan made unlawful gains with a corresponding loss to the Sikkim government of over Rs 900 crore on account of escalating the prize-winning tickets claim for the period between 2009 and 2010, which were nothing but proceeds of crime.

In a statement, the ED said that Santiago Martin, his companies and others invested parts of the proceeds of crime generated from lottery business in immovable properties through more than 40 companies. They were incorporated in the name of their family members and other associates to project the same as untainted properties. Santiago Martin, his companies Ms. Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd, Martin Builders Pvt Ltd, Daison Land and Development Pvt Ltd acquired immovable properties worth Rs 19.59 crore from the loans and advances that were given by Santiago Martin and his family members.