The Supreme Court has Stays Summons Under Section 50 Of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) issued to Martin Santiago and his company, Future Gaming And Hotels Services.
The bench of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Pankaj Mithal while addressing the application filed by Future Gaming And Hotels Services Pvt Ltd. for the grant of interim relief issued an ex-parte ad-interim order directing the Enforcement Directorate not to access and copy the contents of Mobile phone of the and the electronic devices belonging to the employees of the Future Gaming And Hotels Services.
The bench further issued an ex-parte ad-interim order staying the effect and operation of summons under Section 50 of the PMLA issued to the Martin Santiago and the summons to the extent that they require the presence of the persons mentioned therein for the purpose of extraction of data stored in the respective digital devices.”
Background
Directorate of Enforcement (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 Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in connection with investigation against Santiago Martin and his entity M/s Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited and other associates. 4 printing presses where lottery tickets have been printed were also covered under search operation.
ED initiated investigation on the basis of FIR registered by Meghalaya Police on complaint by the Director, Meghalaya State Lottery and Kerala Police FIRs taken over by CBI.
The main allegations against the group are that they have illegally captured lottery market by not allowing others to operate, selling fake lottery tickets, manipulating winning prizes, and purchasing big amount prize winning tickets against cash payment for converting black money into white leading to huge loss to the exchequer and general public.
It has further come out that over 90% of the business of the company is in the lottery tickets with face value of Rs. 6 against which most of the prizes are below Rs. 10,000 which is non-taxable. No proper record is maintained by the company regarding prize winners, sold and unsold tickets. Lottery schemes are designed by the company in such a way that substantial profit goes to the Company and organising state gets very small portion of the revenue.
The search has resulted into recovery and seizure of unexplained cash amounting to Rs. 12.41 Crore, various digital devices and incriminating documents. Further freezing of bank FDR of Rs.6.42 Crore has also been done during search operation. Record of huge investment in immovable properties at Coimbatore Chennai, Mumbai, Dubai and London have also been found. They have made huge investments in share market also.
In the previous investigation in the matter at ED, Kochi, it was found that Martin Santiago and his company had acquired Proceeds of Crime of around Rs. 920 Crore in lottery business, out of which properties of Rs. 622 Crore have been attached and Prosecution Complaint has been filed, trial on which is in progress.
Case Details
Case Title: Future Gaming And Hotels Services Pvt Ltd. & Anr. Versus Directorate Of Enforcement & Ors.
Case No.: Writ Petition(s)(Criminal) No(s). 515/2024
Date: 13-12-2024
Counsel For Applicant: C.A.Sundaram,Sr.Adv., Mukul Rohatgi,Sr.Adv., Ms. Rohini Musa, AOR, Abhishek Singh,Adv., Amit Bhalla,Adv.
Counsel For Respondent: None
