ED finds Rs 8.8 crore at Santiago Martin’s office in Chennai | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has recovered Rs 8.8 crore from its Chennai office Santiago Martinusbetter known as lottery kingduring house searches Thursday in a money laundering case against him and other associates for illegal profits of over Rs 900 crore made in the distribution and sale of lotteries.
The searches were conducted at the premises of Martin and his close family members in Chennai and Coimbatore and at other associates in Faridabad, Ludhiana and Kolkata to investigate the ‘proceeds of crime’ arising from the illegal distribution and sale of lotteries in various states.
Martin and his Future Gaming and Hotel Services (P) Ltd are accused of committing fraud in the distribution of state lotteries in Sikkim. ED had earlier conducted searches at the homes of Martin and associates in May last year, when it had seized assets worth over Rs 457 crore, including Rs 158 crore of fixed deposits and mutual funds, and Rs 299 crore of properties.
The investigation against Martin, India’s largest political donor who has contributed Rs 1,368 crore through electoral bonds to all parties including DMK, had come to a standstill after the Tamil Nadu Police withdrew its FIR against him, which was the predicate offense on the basis of which ED had registered its money laundering probe. The Supreme Court had later ruled that while ED is at liberty to challenge the withdrawal of the FIR, the PMLA investigation against the accused cannot proceed in the absence of a predicate offence.
ED then moved the Madras High Court, which on October 28 ruled that the withdrawal of the corruption case, “predicate offence” in ED’s parlance, was illegal, and validated ED’s case under PMLA, while also asking state authorities to freshen the corruption case to breathe life into.