The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) has turned out to be the second-highest party that Santiago Martin's Future Gaming donated to, the latest alphanumeric data revealed by the Election Commission (EC) shows.
Martin, via two Future Gaming firms, is the highest donor to electoral bonds with Rs 1,368 crore, out of which Rs 542 crore was given to the TMC between 2019-2024. The TMC was Martin's second-highest beneficiary after MK Stalin's DMK that received overall Rs 656 crore, from his firms.
While Mamata Banerjee's TMC is the second-highest beneficiary of the overall electoral bonds after the Bharatiya Janata Party, West Bengal is only one of the 13 states where lotteries are still legal.
Martin's firms also donated Rs 154 crore to Jagan Reddy's YSR Congress and Rs 100 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Congress, too, received Rs 50 crore from the firms.
Future Gaming's Donations to BJP Amid ED Action
Martin and his firms have been facing a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax (IT) department for allegedly getting illegal monetary gains by violating provisions of the Lottery Act.
In 2019, the ED launched a money laundering probe against Martin alleging that the company and its sub-distributors had "criminally conspired" to illegally retain unsold lottery tickets in Sikkim and claim top prizes on unsold tickets to gain money to the tune of Rs 910 crore.
In October 2021, Martin's firm donated Rs 50 crore to the BJP.
On 23 December, 2021, the ED provisionally attached immovable assets worth Rs. 19.59 crore of Martin and others under PMLA in the case. With this, the total attachment in this case reached Rs. 277.59 crore.
In January 2022, Martin's firm donated another Rs 50 crore to the BJP via electoral bonds.
However, the ED action against Martin has come on several instances other than the two periods when he donated to the BJP.
As a part of the probe, assets worth Rs 409.92 crore were attached in April 2022, Rs 173 crore worth assets were attached in July 2022, and Rs 457 crore worth assets were attached in May 2023.
In October 2023, the Income Tax raided Martin's properties in Coimbatore in a parallel probe. Raids on Martin and his son-in-law Aadhav Arjun's properties were also conducted in April 2023 and September 2022.
On 9 March 2024, the ED raided properties of Aadhav Arjun at 10 locations in a case of alleged sand mining in Tamil Nadu, ETV Bharat reported. Interestingly, in February 2024, Arjun was appointed the general secretary of the Dalit political outfit Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK).
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