Former Mongolian Prime Minister's UES Pad Paid With Laundered $: Feds

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A former Mongolian prime minister's New York City apartment could be seized after federal officials said he bought them with stolen mining.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in the Eastern District of New York court contends that former Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold purchased two homes for a total of $14 million back in 2015 and 2012.

One of the apartments, a $9.9 million unit, is on the Upper East Side, the suit states.

Officials noted that the suit is part of a crackdown on money laundering in the high-end real estate market.

"As alleged, former Mongolian Prime Minister Batbold used the profits from his illicit corruption scheme to purchase high-end real estate in violation of United States federal law," said United States Attorney Breon Peace, in a statement.

"Today's forfeiture action sends a message that corrupt officials will not use our real estate market to conceal proceeds of crimes."

While Batbold was prime minister of Mongolia, a corporate entity owned by him through intermediaries was awarded a $68 million mining contract in 2011, the suit states.

The deal was to purchase copper concentrates from the Erdenet Mine, one of the largest copper and molybdenum mines in the world, according to the suit.

The entity, a Hong Kong-based entity called Catrison, had no history in mining or infrastructure to support such a deal, prosecutors said.

Millions from the contract were then diverted to various foreign bank accounts, federal officials claim, with some of that money traced to the purchase of two multi-million dollar New York City apartments.

In 2012, a shell company controlled by a Catrison's sole board member — a South Korean citizen named Hak Seon Kim — purchased an apartment inside the Park Imperial building on West 56th Street for $3.9 million, the suit claims, with a detailed accounting of the various accounts used to move the money.

Three years later, Kim and some of the same bank accounts were used to purchase a 12th-floor apartment at The Carlton House at 21 East 61st St. for $9.9 million, according to prosecutors.

Batbold's lawyers claimed in a 2020 filing that he doesn't own any property in New York, according to Reuters.

But the suit claims that Batbold's son, Harvard Business School graduate Battushig, is listed in the Carlton House management records as a "co-owner" of the unit, in addition to the sole Catrison board member, Kim.

The federal filing is a civil case and does not charge Batbold with a crime.

"Mr. Batbold looks forward to his day in court, when he will have the opportunity to defend himself against these unfounded claims," said Batbold's lawyer, Orin Snyder, in a statement to Reuters.