ED attaches Rs 120 crore assets of Martin in Tamil Nadu lottery scam

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth Rs 120 crore of Tamil Nadu’s ‘lottery king’ Santiago Martin in a money laundering scam worth over Rs 900 crore where he has been accused of inflating prize money and amassing property from unaccounted cash.
At least 40 companies floated by Martin and his associates are under scrutiny in the alleged money laundering scam. A few months ago, the income tax department searched more than 70 premises associated with him and found unaccounted income of about Rs 600 crore.
On Monday, the ED provisionally attached his property worth Rs 120 crore which included 61 flats and 88 plots in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu. “Investigation revealed that Martin and his associates made illegal gain of Rs 910 crore on account of inflating the prize winning tickets’ claim,” the ED said in its order. The illegal gains are only for the period of 2009 and 2010. Martin invested the illegal money from his lottery business in immovable property in the name of 40 companies which were used to launder the proceeds of crime, the agency claimed. Earlier, the ED had issued two provisional orders attaching assets worth Rs138 crore.
The agency has accused Martin and others of entering into a criminal conspiracy to violate provisions of the Lotteries Regulation Act. Martin and his associates cheated the Sikkim government by entering into an agreement contrary to provisions of the Lotteries Regulation Act, it said. The ED said the agreement between Martin and the Sikkim government was illegal where Martin Lottery Agency Ltd, currently Future Gaming and Hotel Services, was allowed to sell Sikkim State Lottery tickets in Kerala. It claimed Martin’s company and government officials obtained illegal gains “by way of non-remittance of sale proceeds to the public account of the Sikkim government”.