The situation involves a theft of coal in Mongolia: a plan to clean illegal money from MP Bat-Erdene running into billions.

Many famous Mongolian lawmakers have been accused of taking coal that was being sent out of the country. One of them is D. Bat-Erdene, a member of the Great Khural and the owner of the Azhnai Corporation*. It has been found that he could clean the money stolen from JSC Tavantolgoy * through his own bank Kapitron.

While serving as a member of the Mongolian parliament from 2012 to 2016 and owning a large portion of Tavantolgoy JSC shares, he used his power over the chairman of the board of directors B. Tuvshinbayar and executive director R. Seddorzha to create false documents in order to get about 324 thousand tons of coal from the company as payment for a debt that did not exist. As a result, Bat-Erdene is accused of organizing the theft of 18.5 billion tugriks from the Tavantolgoy company.

D. Bat-Erdene

The Umnugov aimag (the regional government)owns 51 percent of Tavantolgoy JSC, Azhnay Corporation owns 19.7 percent, Shandas Impex LLC owns 16.9 percent, and the rest, 12.4 percent, is owned by shareholders from 23 foreign countries. Deputy D. Bat-Erdene used his advantage as a shareholder to appoint people close to him to the company’s management team, and then illegally cleaned the money through his own bank, Kapitron.

According to Mongolian law enforcement, it was at Bat-Erdene's recommendation that L. Badraa and D. Dagvadorj joined the company's board, Z. Erdenebayar became the chief engineer, O. Monkhtaivan was appointed deputy director for finance, V. Sainbileg became a personnel specialist, E. Ugtahtsetseg became the treasurer, S. Sodbaatar became the head of the sales department, and R. Seddorzh became the executive director. This means he placed his people in all the most important positions in Tavantolgoy JSC. Currently, the deputy is forbidden from meeting with these people.

As investigators believe, the deputy cleaned the illegally obtained money through the Kapitron bank, which he fully owns. JSC “Tavantolgoy” has accounts in commercial banks, but the majority of the funds were placed in the bank “Kapitron”. Most of the cash transactions were done through this bank.

Reference:

*Azhnai Corporation is a major Mongolian company involved in foreign and domestic trade, tourism, mining, banking, manufacturing, transportation, logistics, securities trading, real estate, road construction, and media.

* JSC “Tavantolgoy” is a large mining company in the Umnugov aimag. It provides most of the aimag’s budget. The board of directors of the joint-stock company dismisses all accusations of the company’s involvement in the coal theft as politically motivated slander, causing Tavantolgoy to suffer significant losses. In 2023, the company received 275 billion tugriks in subsidies from the Great Khural, but money alone cannot restore its reputation.