Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited, the largest contributor of electoral bonds to political parties, has purchased a total of Rs 1,368 crore in electoral bonds since April 2019.
Data provided by SBI reveals that the company’s donations to political parties amounted to six times its profit.
The company, helmed by Santiago Martin, famously known as the “Lottery King,” is made headlines when Enforcement Directorate attached its property worth over Rs 400 crore on April 2, 2022. Subsequently, on April 7, 2022, as per the Election Commission’s records, the company purchased around Rs 100 crore worth of bonds.
According to The Quint, at least 14 out of the top 30 companies which purchased electoral bonds from 12 April 2019 to 24 January 2024 including Martin’s company faced action by central or state probe agencies.
A report by Reporters Collective reveals that in the financial year 2020-21, Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited donated Rs 150 crore through electoral bonds, despite reporting a profit before tax of only Rs 84.79 crore.
In the subsequent financial year, 2021-22, the company’s electoral bond donations surged to Rs 544 crore, while its profit before tax remained at Rs 84.46 crore, indicating donations six times its profits.
By the financial year 2022-23, its political donations reached Rs 328 crore, while its profit before tax dwindled to a mere Rs 82.02 crore.
Complying with the directions of the Supreme Court, The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday uploaded data received from the State Bank of India (SBI) on electoral bonds on its website.
ECI said the State Bank of India had provided the data about the electoral bonds to the commission on March 12. While scrapping the Electoral Bond Scheme the Supreme Court directed the SBI to give the ECI the data.
The ECI has uploaded the data into two parts – the first one containing 337 pages providing details of entities that bought the electoral bonds and the date of purchase, while the second part consists of 426 pages providing details of the political parties, dates, and the amount. However, the data does not provide details of which entity bought which parties’ bonds.
According to available data, out of the total electoral bonds worth Rs 12,008 crore sold between 2017-2018 and 2022-2023, the BJP received nearly 55%, approximately Rs 6,564 crore.
