SUKHBAATAR BATBOLD, FORMER PRIMER MINISTER OF MONGOLIA AND HIS SON BATTUSHIG BATBOLD ARE BLEEDING CASH TO DEFEND THE FORFEITURE CLAIM BY THE US DEPARTMENT OF JU
On 26 March 2024, the Department of Justice of the USA issued statement confirming that the Department of Justice submitted a civil claim against Sukhbaatar Batbold and his associates to forfeit two luxury apartments located in New York city at 21 East 61st Street and 230 West 56th Street, purchased for US$14 million.
Google Maps street view of The Carlton House in midtown Manhattan
According to the complaint, the apartments were purchased with the proceeds of unlawfully awarded mining contracts (i.e. copper concentrate sold by Erdenet Mining Corporation, a state-owned entity) at the direction and for the benefit of then Mongolian Prime Minister Batbold Sukhbaatar and his family. Specifically, the complaint alleges that when Batbold was the Prime Minister of Mongolia, Catrison, an entity which was owned by him through trusted proxies, was awarded a US$68 million mining contract. However, Catrison had no operational history, no mining expertise and no financial or logistical infrastructure to execute commodity sales, and its sole director was a former linguistics teacher. There are further allegations of money laundering activities to convert proceeds from illicit activities into luxurious apartments in New York city.
Photo: BBC
In July 2024, Batbold Sukhbaatar, his son and entities controlled by Batbold (Altai Holding LLC and Sky Hypermarket LLC) engaged Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, an international law firm to defend against the complaint and transferred US$900,000 as a retainer fee.
Further, to assist with their defense, they also engaged Tusk Strategies LLC, a lobbying company founded by Bradley Tusk who was a campaign manager of Mike Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York city. A monthly fee for the engagement of lobbying and political strategy is US$125,000. To further assist the works of Gibson Dunn and Tusk Strategies, in February 2025 Batbold and his associates also hired BGR Group, a communications company for a monthly retainer fee of US$100,000. Based on these contracts, it appears that Batbold Sukhbaatar is spending at least US$225,000 per month for political and communications consultants (excluding fees for his expensive lawyers at Gibson Dunn). This would be equivalent of monthly salaries of at least 500 teachers of Mongolian public schools.
By M.Baavar
