The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted simultaneous raids at multiple places, including Chennai and Calcutta, against Chennai-based “Lottery King” Santiago Martin, whose cumulative contribution of Rs 1,300 crore to political parties had been identified as the biggest donation through electoral bonds.

The raids were conducted in connection with a money-laundering probe.

“Agency sleuths from Kerala searched Martin’s premises and office at Thudiyalur in Coimbatore. Multiple premises linked to the businessman and his associates were also searched in several places in Chennai and other states,” said an ED official.

Sources said at least 20 premises linked to Martin, his son-in-law Adhav Arjuna and associates in Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Faridabad in Haryana, Ludhiana in Punjab, and Calcutta were searched as part of a “comprehensive” action against his business empire.

The agency had carried out searches at properties linked to Martin in March this year.

Madras High Court, the ED official said, had last month allowed the agency to proceed with its probe against Martin and his associates and set aside a lower court order which had accepted a closure report filed by Chennai police in a case related to the seizure of Rs 7.2 crore in “unaccounted” cash from his Chennai residence.

The agency had last year attached assets worth about Rs 457 crore in a case against Martin linked to an alleged loss of over Rs 900 crore to the Sikkim government because of fraudulent sale of the state lottery in Kerala. The agency had alleged that Martin and his associate companies and entities made unlawful gains to the extent of Rs 910 crore from April 2009 to August 2010. Future Gaming Solutions India Pvt Ltd, owned by Martin, is the master distributor of Sikkim lotteries, sources said.