The U.S. government is trying to seize two luxury midtown Manhattan apartments belonging to a former Mongolian prime minister, alleging he bought them by funneling millions of dollars in proceeds from the nation’s lucrative mining contracts.
Federal prosecutors allege that while he was prime minister from 2009 to 2012, Sukhbaatar Batbold and his family used state mining contracts to illegally divert funds through shell companies for their personal use. Batbold, who currently serves as a member of the Mongolian parliament, allegedly siphoned $14 million into foreign bank accounts to buy the two high-end residences, according to a lawsuit unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
Batbold “abused his position as prime minster to profit from the sale of his country’s natural resources,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said. The civil suit does not accuse Batbold of committing any crimes.
A lawyer for Batbold couldn’t be immediately identified for comment.
Batbold controlled an entity called Catrison Limited, which was awarded a $68 million copper mining contract in 2011, prosecutors said, despite having “no operational history, no mining expertise, and no financial or logistical infrastructure to execute commodity sales.” It’s sole director was a former linguistics teacher, according to the complaint.
Another shell company Batbold controlled was awarded a $30 million mining contract and the proceeds were wired to a US account held by his son, according to the US. That money was used by him to make car payments, travel and an interior designer, prosecutors said.
The first is a two-bedroom condo unit with unobstructed views of the Hudson River and Central Park at the Park Imperial building located at 230 W. 56th St. in Midtown Manhattan. The same layout one floor up sold for $3.2 million in 2019.
The second is a a sprawling 2,284-square-foot three-bedroom apartment located at Carlton House at 21 E. 61st St., less than a block from Central Park. It has been on the market for 392 days with two price cuts from the original ask of $9.2 million and failed to sell in 2018 when the asking price started at $10.8 million.
Patricia Hurtado and Terrence Edwards, Bloomberg , 2024-03-27 11:03:03
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