Federal prosecutors in New York accused former Prime Minister of Mongolia Sukhbaatar Batbold Tuesday of buying two luxury apartments in Manhattan with embezzled money.
Mr. Batbold was Mongolian head of state from Oct. 29, 2009, through August 10, 2012.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed a civil forfeiture complaint against Mr. Batbold, claiming that $14 million used to purchase the two apartments stemmed from embezzled mining revenues.
It alleged that one entity given a $68 million mining contract with the Mongolian state in Catrison, was owned by Mr. Batbold through intermediaries — and that Catrison had no history or expertise in mining.
Money from that contract went towards buying the apartments, which were then used by Mr. Batbold’s eldest son Battushig Batbold, prosecutors said.
The younger Mr. Batbold is a member of the International Olympic Committee.
Another shell company was given a $30 million contract, prosecutors said. Funds from that contract were purportedly wired to the account of the younger Mr. Batbold to be spent on car payments, an interior designer and travel expenses.
“Former Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold allegedly crafted a corruption scheme, funneling millions of dollars from mining contracts through illegitimate shell companies to finance his family’s lavish lifestyle,” FBI New York Field Office Assistant Director-in-Charge James Smith said in a statement.
Mr. Batbold has not been criminally charged, and the attorney’s office noted that the complaint is only an allegation that money or property was linked to crime.
Mr. Batbold’s attorneys say that the prosecutors’ claims are bunkum.
In a 2020 filing in a different case, Mr. Batbold’s lawyers said he had no property in New York.
“The claims filed today echo allegations our clients defeated two years ago in courts around the world. In those cases, we proved the claims against Mr. Batbold were the product of a misinformation campaign designed to manipulate Mongolian democracy — a campaign secretly directed by Mr. Batbold’s opponents,” his attorney, Orin Snyder, told CNBC.