Batbold Sukhbaatar of Mongolia addresses the Millennium Development Goals Summit at UN Headquarters in New York on September 22, 2010.
Emmanuel Dunand | AFP | Getty Images
Federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit Tuesday to seize two New York City apartments worth $14 million, which were allegedly purchased with the proceeds of a corrupt scheme involving a massive copper mine in Mongolia, a former prime minister of that nation, and whose son is a Harvard Business School graduate.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn details a total of $128 million in allegedly illegal contracts awarded by the state-owned Mongolian mining company to shell companies, which benefited then-Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold and his family, including his eldest son.
“During Batbold's tenure as Prime Minister, Erdenet Mining Corporation introduced an intermediary with ties to Batbold into the relationship with Batbold. [the commodity trading firm] The suit alleges that Ocean Partners allowed Batbold to withdraw millions of dollars for his personal use and benefit, which included purchasing “luxury apartments in Manhattan.”
Batbold served as Prime Minister from 2009 until 2012. He is currently a member of the Mongolian Parliament.
Funds linked to another allegedly illegal $30 million contract from Erdernet Mining went to a US bank account controlled by the eldest son, Pattoshige Batbold, via wire transfers that referred to “car payment,” trips and travel, and “school payment.” . “And paying the interior designer's wages,” the suit said.
Batbold's son, Pattochej Batbold, is a graduate of Harvard Business School and is a member of the International Olympic Committee.
Pattushig Batbold also worked as a summer associate at Blackstone in 2014, and as a mining analyst at Morgan Stanley from 2009 to 2011, according to his LinkedIn page.
“The claims filed today mirror claims our clients defeated two years ago in courts around the world,” Oren Snyder, an attorney at Gibson Dunn, which represents Sukhbaatar Batbold and Batuscheg Batbold, said in an email statement to CNBC.
“In those cases, we demonstrated that the allegations against Mr. Batbold were the product of a disinformation campaign aimed at manipulating Mongolian democracy – a campaign covertly conducted by opponents of Mr. Batbold.”
“Mr. Batbold is looking forward to his day in court, where he will have the opportunity to defend himself against these baseless allegations,” the attorney said.
CNBC has reached out to the Mongolian Mission to the United Nations in New York for comment on the allegations in the lawsuit.
