ED seizes

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Monday that it has seized cash, “sensitive” documents, digital devices and fixed deposit receipts (FDR) during a search operation at nearly two dozen premises linked to “lottery king” Santiago Martin.
Martin is a Chennai-based businessman who was revealed in March as the single-biggest donor ( ₹1,368 crore) to political parties through the now-scrapped electoral bonds scheme.
“ED has conducted search operations at 22 premises in the States of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya and Punjab under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 in connection with the investigation against Santiago Martin and his entity M/s Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited and other associates,” the central agency said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
It further stated, “During the search operations, various incriminating documents, digital devices, cash of Rs. 12.41 crore were recovered and seized, along with FDR of Rs. 6.42 crore has also been freezed”.
The searches are in continuation of an ED operation that began on the night of November 14 and came after the Madras high court recently reopened a 2012 probe into alleged the money laundering.
Martin was raided by the ED last year as well. Then, the agency attached assets worth about ₹457 crore in a case against the “lottery king” linked to an alleged loss of more than ₹900 crore to the Sikkim government by fraudulent sale of the state lottery in Kerala.