All You Need To Know About Santiago Martin, The Highest Electoral Bond Donor (Image: Martin Foundation)When the Election Commission of India published the list of entities that purchased electoral bonds, those looking for the names of familiar corporates were surprised and shocked to see Santiago Martin’s name as the biggest contributor. Future Gaming and Hotel Services, a company related to Santiago Martin, purchased Rs 1,394 crore worth of electoral bonds between April 2019 and January 2024.
Santiago Martin, the founder and chairman of the Martin Group of Companies, is commonly known as the “Lottery King” of India. According to the Martin Charitable Trust website, Santiago Martin started from “humble beginnings,” with his roots in simple business ventures as a trader. The website claims that he has managed to create one of the largest business empires in the country today.
Reports suggest that the lottery king started as a labourer in Myanmar’s Yangon. After returning to India, he started a lottery business in Tamil Nadu in 1988. Later, he expanded his business to Karnataka and Kerala before moving into the northeast. According to the Hindustan Times, he was handling government lottery schemes in the northeast.
“Having attained a position of leadership within the trade over years of innovation and marketing in business operations promoting an average annual growth of approximately 109%, he is now regarded as the “Lottery King” of India,” claims the Martin Charitable Trust website. As per the website, Santiago Martin has 1,000 staff.
Apart from the lottery business, Santiago Martin is also managing other businesses, including construction, real estate, textiles, and hospitality. It is worth mentioning that the website also claims that the Martin Charitable Trust website further claims that Santiago Martin was consul general for the Republic of Liberia. He also holds honorary doctorates from certain foreign universities. Notably, he is also the President of the All India Federation of Lottery Trade and Allied Industries, as per the website.
Santiago Martin and his company have been under the scanner of central investigative agencies for a long time. Future Gaming claims to have had a turnover of Rs 20,000 crore, reported the Economic Times, citing the company’s annual report for 2021–22.
In 2012, Santiago Martin was arrested and detained in Vellore prison for his alleged illegal activities. However, the lottery king later secured bail in all cases. In 2011, too, he was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police on land-grab charges. According to the Economic Times, Income Tax Department officials raided 70 locations linked to Martin across the country in 2019. Santiago Martin had also invested Rs 20 crore in a Tamil film in 2011.
In May 2023, the Enforcement Directorate, as part of an investigation against Santiago Martin, froze his assets worth around Rs 457 crore under the anti-money laundering law. The case was reportedly related to an alleged loss of over Rs 900 crore to the Sikkim government by fraudulent sale of the state lottery in Kerala.