JPMorgan Chase has gone to court to prevent an Indian real estate developer from transferring ownership of a $19.4 million condominium at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan, the first step in an effort to seize the apartment as partial payment for a $90 million award.

A major problem is that the real estate developer says he does not own the condo.

The lawsuit, filed after The New York Times wrote about the apartment in February, illustrates the difficulties in untangling the true ownership of real estate bought under the names of secretive shell companies.

The 68th-floor apartment at 25 Columbus Circle is owned by a Delaware shell company with a Singapore address, NYC Real Estate Opportunities.

The Times article tied the apartment to Kabul Chawla, a New Delhi businessman whose company, BPTP, is the target of hundreds of complaints from Indian consumers. They say Mr. Chawla has failed to deliver residential housing projects for which they have paid large deposits.