Mongolia's former head of state used a "sophisticated money-laundering scheme" to divert and plow millions of dollars from a government-owned copper mining project through global banks and into luxury real estate in New York, the U.S. Justice Department alleged Tuesday. A 19-page civil complaint in Brooklyn accuses Sukhbaatar Batbold, 61, of using the authority he wielded over Mongolia's resources and the state-owned Erdenet Mining Corporation while serving as his country's prime minister from 2009 to 2012 to steal from public coffers, and using shell companies, strawmen and overseas accounts to launder the funds he allegedly took. During his third year...
The U.S. Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York that seeks forfeiture of two apartments that were allegedly purchased through a corruption scheme.