There are many corruption cases related to former senior officials of the Mineral Resources Authority. The former chairman of the Mineral Resources Authority, D.Batkhuyag, was sentenced to 6.6 years in jail for numerous issues around illegal mining licenses and the renewal of suspended four licenses for SouthGobi Sands LLC and transferring them to a private company controlled by friends.

The Court determined that former chairman D.Batkhuyag is guilty of obtaining SouthGobi Sands LLC`s 5261Х mining license worth 1.2 billion US dollars as bribery in return to renewed the company`s suspended four mining licenses.

The former chairman transferred the license to a private company Zelme, controlled by his friend N.Bat-ireedui via his friend, S.Jargalsaikhan, director of Vitafit group.

According to a source close to the matter, the Investigation Department of the Anti-Corruption Authority seized 11 million US dollars from N.Bat-Ireedui, Director of Zelme company during a raid at his home.

But an official source says that “it is true that N.Bat-Ireedui had a great amount of foreign and national currency at home. It states this in the file for the case. But the currency was Chinese Yuan, not US dollars.” But some sources say that law enforcement office acknowledge it is possible that a businessman can have such amounts of money.

But some sources say that “the origin of the seized money should be investigated because this money might be laundered by SouthGobi Sands”.