Unit 32G, a two-bedroom, 1,767-square-foot apartment with sweeping views of the park, is owned by an entity called Ecree, which bought the condo in 2014 for $7 million in cash. Documents unearthed by the nonprofit group Global Witness show that the purchase was funded by the daughter of the Republic of Congo’s president, a longtime target of anti-corruption investigators. The funds for the all-cash purchase appear to have been siphoned from that country’s government, according to a report by Global Witness. The purchase took place more than two years before Donald J. Trump became president. Owners of units in the building — 1 Central Park West — pay tens of thousands of dollars a year in condo fees to Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization...

A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, Kimberly Benza, said that Unit 32G had not recently been owned by the Trump Organization and that whoever bought it in 2014 purchased it from an unrelated party. She said the condo fees were for building-maintenance purposes “and are not fees paid to Trump for profit.” There is no indication that Mr. Trump or his company broke the law...The Global Witness report alleges that a Cyprus company belonging to the president’s daughter, Claudia Sassou-Nguesso, bankrolled the purchase of the Trump apartment in July 2014...A spokesman for President Sassou-Nguesso and a representative at the Republic of Congo’s embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment...

Letters cited by Global Witness and reviewed by The New York Times show that a Portuguese businessman, José Veiga, wrote reference letters on behalf of the president’s granddaughter to the condo association ahead of the sale. He called her “one of my best friends” and said she would be a “valued addition” to the Trump property...It is unclear what sort of background check, if any, the Trump Organization did on the purchase financed by Ms. Sassou-Nguesso. A lawyer for Mr. Veiga, who Portuguese authorities have arrested on suspicion of money laundering, declined to comment. According to New York real estate records, the entity used to make the purchase, Ecree, used a Manhattan address at the law firm K&L Gates.