In a shocking revelation, it has been reported that Kolkata Police had closed two cases against Future Gaming and Hotel Services, owned by scam-tainted Santiago Martin, around the same time when the company donated to Trinamool Congress (TMC) via electoral bonds.
An investigative report by ThePrint states that Kolkata Police closed two cases against Future Gaming, which runs the popular ‘Dear Lottery’ game in West Bengal and Sikkim, after the company made substantial donations to TMC. The police were probing cheating and criminal conspiracy cases against the firm at that time.
As per electoral bond data released by SBI, Future Gaming donated ₹1 crore to TMC in October 2020, after that it gave ₹30 crore in July 2021, ₹46 crore in October 2021, and ₹60 crore in January 2022. As per the report, the two cases were closed in December 2021 and January 2022, after the donations.
The company continued to contribute to TMC through electoral bonds till January 2024, before the scheme was stopped by the Supreme Court, and has given a total of ₹542 crore, the highest amount donated by the company to any party.
The FIRs against Future Gaming date back to 2019 and serve as the basis for the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) money laundering case against the company, which was registered on May 28, 2021.
Citing an ED official, the report says that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had been investigating Future Gaming for possible money laundering since 2010, but there was little progress after 2014. The ED’s probe against Future Gaming began only after the Kolkata Police filed FIRs against it in 2019. However, the probe fell into uncertainty after the state police submitted closure reports.
As per the report, Kolkata police closed the cases even though ED had told the court that it had found evidence to substantiate the allegations.
Notably, in April 2022, the ED attached Rs 409.92 crore of the company’s movable assets. In a press statement, the agency stated that it had launched a money laundering investigation “against M/S Future Gaming and its Sub Distributors and Area Distributors for West Bengal on the basis of FIRs registered by Kolkata Police under various sections of the IPC and under sections 7(3) and 9 of the Lotteries Regulation Act, 1998”.
While TMC has denied any knowledge of this saying that donations were made anonymously, the BJP has accused the party of blocking the investigation by central probe agencies in cases against Future Gaming to cover up corruption.
It is pertinent to note that Future Gaming and Hotel Services made the largest political donation of ₹1,368 crore through electoral bonds in the past 5 years. The data was made public by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in March this year. At the same time, it was revealed that the West Bengal-based Trinamool Congress (TMC) party had encashed bonds totalling ₹1,609 crore. Notably, Future Gaming is the sole distributor of ‘Dear Lottery’, a paper lottery organised by the states of Sikkim and Nagaland.
Two FIRs registered by Kolkata Police against Future Gaming
ThePrint reported that the first FIR against Future Gaming and Hotel Services was registered at the Bhowanipore Police Station in June 2019.
This complaint was lodged by a Kalighat resident who claimed to be a regular buyer of ‘Dear Lottery’. The complainant alleged that there was “large-scale financial fraud and misappropriation of government funds in sabotage of the lottery system running into crores”.
This FIR booked Future Gaming under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (criminal act is done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 417 and 419 (cheating), 418 (cheating with knowledge of wrongful loss),419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonesty) and provisions of the Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998.
In the second FIR, filed at Kolkata’s Beliaghata Police Station in August 2019 the complainant stated that the “accused have been organising the lottery according to their whims in the guise of promoting and selling lotteries owned by organising states”.
Notably, OpIndia had earlier reported how TMC leaders have benefitted from lotteries in West Bengal. In November 2022, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) informed that Trinamool Congress (TMC) Minister Anubrata Mondal and his daughter Sukanya had won the lottery 5 times in three years. Anubrata Mondal was arrested by the central agency in November 2022 while his daughter Sukanya was arrested in April 2023.
Other than TMC, “lottery king” Santiago Martin has close ties with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala, and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) in Tamil Nadu.
Santiago Martin and his ‘lottery scam’
Santiago Martin is accused of causing a loss of ₹910,29,87,566 (~ ₹910.29 crores) to the Sikkim government through the fraudulent sale of lottery tickets in the State of Kerala between April 1, 2009 and August 31, 2010.
“Martin and his associate companies and entities made unlawful gains with a corresponding loss to the government of Sikkim to the extent of ₹ 910 crore on account of inflating the prize-winning tickets claim for the period from 01.04.2009 to 31.08.2010,” the ED said in a statement in May 2023.
At that time, the central agency seized his movable properties (mutual funds and fixed deposits) worth ₹157.7 crores and documents of immovable properties to the tune of ₹299.16 crores.
In December 2021, the Enforcement Directorate attached ₹19.59 crore worth of his properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Two years earlier in 2019, raids were conducted by the IT Department on 70 premises of ‘Lottery Martin’ across the country.
A former daily-wage labourer in Yangon in Myanmar, Santiago Martin went on to establish a ₹7000 crore ‘lottery’ business. He has been under the radar of investigative agencies since 2011 for financial fraud and money laundering.
