00:00:00
[audio logo] NARRATOR: Every fraud
begins with a promise. - He purported to be somebody
with access to a lot of money.
00:00:12
NARRATOR: A quick
fortune, easy money, or a life transformed overnight. - Between June and September
of 2017, there's about
00:00:19
$300,000 in cryptocurrency. NARRATOR: But behind
these illusions lie calculated
deceptions, carefully
00:00:27
hidden in plain sight. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: He had
lost the chance to make money. Losing the chance to make money
can make somebody unhappy.
00:00:35
NARRATOR: Sometimes
these criminals are backed into a corner
and feel their only way out
00:00:39
is to kill. BRYANNA FOX: He
went along with it and sadly, willingly went
along with it to his own death.
00:00:45
[music playing] PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: Danville
is a small town in Vermont. It's in an area called
the Northeast Kingdom,
00:01:16
which is a rural, mostly
farming area of the state. My name is Paul Van de Graaf,
I was the principal prosecutor
00:01:27
in the investigation. On the afternoon
of January 7, a couple that lived in the area
was driving down a road
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called Peacham Road
in Barnet, Vermont, and saw what appeared
to be something suspicious in a snowbank
along the side of the road.
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They stopped. They noticed that
it was a body. They called the state police. TYLER DUMONT: Authority say
the remains of a man who
00:02:02
had been brutally murdered were
found partially covered in snow on a pull off along Peacham
Road Sunday afternoon.
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- He died from multiple gunshot
wounds to the head and torso. TYLER DUMONT: My name
is Tyler Dumont.
00:02:18
I was a general assignment
reporter for WCAX-TV. This was a very
violent crime, you
00:02:24
know, someone who was
shot multiple times in the head and back. It was like a scene
out of the movies.
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A scene out of The Sopranos--
a targeted, violent crime. NARRATOR: The victim
was later identified
00:02:38
as 49-year-old Gregory Davis. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: Gregory
Davis was a religious man,
00:02:45
married to Melissa Davis. They raised a large family. The time of the murder,
Greg Davis
00:02:51
had six children,
and Melissa Davis, his wife was pregnant
with their seventh. They lived in an old farmhouse
that they were leasing to buy.
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They'd moved to Danville
hoping that they could raise their family there. TYLER DUMONT: Gregory
Davis lived in a really
00:03:07
quiet neighborhood. It is the type of place
where people are close. They leave
their doors unlocked.
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They feel safe. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: It was
a surprise to the community. The Davises had not
lived there that long.
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There was a--
a mystery to be solved. And I was going to be
part of the team helping solve
that mystery, that
00:03:30
is why was this person killed. NARRATOR: Police discovered
that Gregory Davis worked
00:03:35
for a local oil company. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
At the time he was murdered, he had a regular
9:00 to 5:00 job with
00:03:42
an oil company in Vermont. He hoped to get involved
in large scale, financially remunerative oil transactions.
00:03:55
But the evidence showed
that he really wasn't super successful at doing that. ZACHARY STENDIG: My name
is Zachary Stendig.
00:04:03
I'm an assistant US
attorney here in Vermont. Davis was essentially
an aspiring businessman.
00:04:10
He was somebody who wanted
to support his family, and he was trying to do that
through these potential
00:04:15
oil transactions. NARRATOR: The police
were puzzled as to why a seemingly ordinary
family man would be killed
00:04:25
in a mafia style execution. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
Mr. Davis's body had handcuffs behind his
back and over 12 bullets
00:04:34
in his body and head. TYLER DUMONT: So when we
talked with investigators, they told us that
it was a homicide.
00:04:44
Police told us
that they did not have any suspects in custody
and that the investigation
00:04:49
was still very active. They also told us a few
other interesting things. One, that it was
a targeted shooting, not
00:04:55
something that they
suspected was random. They also told us that the US
attorney's office was involved.
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That, to me, was unusual. NARRATOR: From the start
of the investigation, police realized they would need
the help of multiple agencies
00:05:13
to help trace the killer. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
From early on, we believed that the hitman
had come from outside Vermont.
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TYLER DUMONT: There is no
easy way to get to Danville. You had to really make
a plan to get there.
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There's no major
airport in Danville. We're talking hours
to get anywhere by car.
00:05:35
So this was something
that was strategic and planned to execute. NARRATOR: When
police interviewed
00:05:47
Gregory Davis's wife, Melissa,
she revealed a shocking detail. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: So on
January 6, around 9 o'clock
00:05:55
at night, a man
dressed as a US marshal arrived in a white
Ford Explorer and knocked
on the Davis's door.
00:06:06
He presented himself
as a marshal, saying he has an arrest
warrant for Mr. Davis.
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And in short order, he left
with Mr. Davis in his car, putting handcuffs on him
after he left the house
00:06:21
before he got into the car. - When somebody
comes to your door with lights flashing
in the background,
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purports to be a US
marshal, presents you with an arrest warrant. I understand why
Greg Davis complied.
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PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: Melissa
Davis, she was surprised that he was arrested. She had very little experience
with the criminal
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justice system. She didn't know
what was happening. She'd hoped that she'd
hear about it the next day.
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So she suspected it
might take a while before she heard from him. She sent him some texts.
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He didn't respond. The next day she became
more nervous about things, talked to her mother-in-law,
talked to other people,
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wondering what had
happened to her husband. ZACHARY STENDIG: They thought
it was a misunderstanding
00:07:09
that they were
concerned, that there was no reason for Mr.
Davis to be under arrest.
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But in the United
States, when law enforcement
requests submission, I think most people submit.
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And that's exactly what
happened in this case. And tragically, it led
to Mr. Davis's death.
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NARRATOR: The revelation
that Gregory Davis was killed by a man posing as
a US marshal brought the case
00:07:41
to the attention of the FBI. - I'm Dr. Bryanna Fox. I'm a psychological
criminologist
00:07:49
at the University
of South Florida and a former FBI Special Agent. According to the FBI's
original profiles,
00:07:57
there are two main styles
of behavior when it comes to these types of crimes. There are the more
disorganized, which
00:08:04
are impulsive, haphazard,
spontaneous in nature, and there are those that
are more premeditated.
00:08:10
And that is certainly what
happened with the Davis murder. It was planned down to the T.
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PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: The
suspected hitman or murderer had posed as a US marshal to
get Mr. Davis out of his house
00:08:27
before he was murdered. And that federal involvement
of a bogus US marshal certainly suggested that there
might be some federal reason
00:08:39
to investigate the case. NARRATOR: In Danville,
Virginia, the FBI and state police have begun looking
at Gregory Davis's records
00:08:51
to try and discover exactly
who he had been involved with. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
We had to figure out
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who was angry
enough, or involved in a dispute with
Mr. Davis, enough to want to kill him
in this very methodical and
00:09:09
premeditated way. If it was a hitman, how
that hitman was hired and who he was? - Law enforcement quickly
went into Mr. Davis's email.
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They went through
his text messages and other electronic
communications, and they found numerous
messages involving
00:09:25
a man named Gregory Gac. Mr. Gac was living
in Minnesota. He was a banker. He had a reputable past.
00:09:37
He graduated from Wharton. He had worked for the CIA. He had lucrative business
dealings with the state
00:09:46
of Illinois, for example. And he was a fairly
well-off, successful person who often
worked as a middleman
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in financial transactions. NARRATOR: The emails showed
that Gregory Davis and Gregory Gac were involved
in a lucrative oil transaction.
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- Gregory Gac, we
learned early on was a middleman
in that oil deal. And so relatively
early on, we spoke
00:10:08
with Mr. Gac, who began
cooperating in January of 2018. NARRATOR: Gregory
Gac told police
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the multimillion dollar
deal was being brokered by Gregory Davis
for a wealthy California
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based Turkish businessman
named Serhat Gumrukcu. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: From
a very early stage,
00:10:29
Serhat Gumrukcu was
a person of interest. - A scientist and a healer,
he was also an incredibly
00:10:38
charismatic person. He purported to be somebody
with access to a lot of money. NARRATOR: 39-year-old
Serhat Gumrukcu was
00:10:49
a wealthy Turkish
entrepreneur who arrived in California in 2013. Gumrukcu had business
interests including
00:10:56
real estate, pharmaceuticals,
and oil trading. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: Mr.
Gumrukcu was certainly
00:11:01
one of the more
complex individuals that I've ever
been involved with. He had three phases of his
career, so to speak.
00:11:10
His first phase of his
career was college in Turkey. He began with a goal
of becoming a doctor.
00:11:20
He got deeply involved
in alternative healing techniques, as well as some
alternative sort of thinking,
00:11:28
including mind, body control. NARRATOR: As well as claiming
to have a PhD in medicine,
00:11:35
Gumrukcu styled himself
as an entrepreneur and member of the Turkish elite. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: In the
second phase of his adult life,
00:11:44
he was trying to be
involved in business. He would regularly
call himself a prince.
00:11:52
At the time, he was
also a magician. NARRATOR: Gumrukcu's
interest in magic brought him into contact
with fellow magician and
00:12:02
Turkish businessman,
Berk Eratay. ZACHARY STENDIG: In terms
of Serhat's background,
00:12:07
I think Berk Eratay
was really a crucial. Berk Eratay had originally
met Serhat Gumrukcu in Turkey.
00:12:14
They bonded over both
being magicians and working in that--
in that field, and they both traveled from
Turkey to the United States
00:12:21
together, where
their relationship continued. NARRATOR: Between
2013 and 2015, Serhat Gumrukcu and Berk Eratay
pursued a number of business
00:12:31
interests in California. BRYANNA FOX: After Gumrukcu
came to the United States, he started all of his
financial exploits again, but
00:12:39
this time bigger and broader. He had several
different schemes, including treatments
for cancer,
00:12:45
a house flipping business. These were hugely profitable. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: Many
people were wowed or
00:12:53
astounded by his brilliance. He had various alternative
healing procedures that he used, whether it was
stem cell treatments or just
00:13:03
general mindfulness therapies. He was involved in a variety
of alternative healing
00:13:09
techniques with different
patients internationally. NARRATOR: Serhat
Gumrukcu's talents
00:13:15
attracted international
investment, including funding from
a group of Danish billionaires
00:13:20
for a new biotech venture. SERHAT GUMRUKCU: I always
believed there is no such thing
00:13:26
as an incurable disease. The only thing we can do is
we have to use our creativity.
00:13:33
We have to use
our imagination, and we have to look at things from
a different perspective than--
00:13:38
than the other scientists to-- to be able to find
things that they weren't able to find so far.
00:13:46
NARRATOR: While Serhat Gumrukcu
was very much the driving force of these business
ventures, Berk Eratay was
00:13:52
always on hand for support. ZACHARY STENDIG: I think
Eratay's relationship with Serhat Gumrukcu
as an associate, but also
00:14:00
as a close personal friend. Eratay had a lot to gain if
Serhat Gumrukcu was successful,
00:14:06
and that Eratay could sort
of ride Gumrukcu's coattails for years, so to speak. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
So one of the things
00:14:13
about Serhat Gumrukcu is that
he had incredible charisma. He also tried to get involved
in a variety of business
00:14:19
transactions, including
real estate transactions, and this oil deal
that was involved
00:14:25
in the center
of his relationship with Gregory Davis. NARRATOR: Police had discovered
that in 2015, Gregory Davis had
00:14:38
been approached by Gregory Gac
to broker a multimillion dollar oil deal for Serhat Gumrukcu.
00:14:45
PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
So the initial oil deal involving Mr.
Gumrukcu and Mr. Davis was put together by Mr. Gac.
00:14:54
Mr. Davis was involved
with a group of people that had oil to sell. And Mr. Gac got involved as the
middleman between the buyers
00:15:05
and the sellers. NARRATOR: In order for the
multimillion dollar deal to proceed, Gregory Davis
asked for written proof
00:15:12
that Mr. Gumrukcu had access to
the funds to purchase the oil. FIONA HOTSTON MOORE: My name
is Fiona Hotston Moore,
00:15:20
and I'm a forensic accountant
and expert witness. So normally when you're looking
at large corporate transactions
00:15:29
between parties,
the lawyers on both sides would be doing due
diligence on the other side
00:15:34
and would be verifying
that the funds are actually available
and legitimately can be transferred.
00:15:40
So it's very much a case
of the lawyers doing legal and financial due diligence.
00:15:45
In this case, it would
appear that no one was instructed or failed
to do proper financial and
00:15:53
legal due diligence. NARRATOR: To prove he
was a serious investor, Serhat Gumrukcu sent Gregory
Davis documents, showing he had
00:16:01
access to millions of euros. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
And Mr. Gumrukcu produced a bank comfort letter
saying that Mr. Gac's group
00:16:09
that now Mr. Gumrukcu
was part of had access to 22.5 million euro. The documents showed
that Mr. Gumrukcu was
00:16:20
hoping to make
$400,000 by producing this bank comfort letter. That's what his percentage of
the profit would be on the deal
00:16:31
if it went forward. Mr. Davis quickly
realized that this bank comfort letter was bogus.
00:16:39
FIONA HOTSTON
MOORE: In this case, Gumrukcu claimed
to have $22 million in a bank account which was to
be used for this transaction,
00:16:48
and unfortunately, no one
verified that his claim was authentic, that he actually
did have this money,
00:16:54
so no financial due
diligence was undertaken. - It was on a bank called
Cyprus First Bank, which
00:17:01
wasn't a real bank, and it
was signed by somebody who was not a real banker. So the oil deal that Greg Gac
was trying to put together
00:17:10
fell apart. ZACHARY STENDIG:
As a result, Gregory Davis threatened to go
to the authorities
00:17:15
on numerous occasions
through emails directly to Mr.
Gumrukcu sometimes which copied Mr. Gac as well.
00:17:23
PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: He
was upset because he was a wannabe entrepreneur. He had what he thought
was a good deal
00:17:28
and the deal had fallen apart. He was hoping to make a lot of
money himself on this oil deal,
00:17:34
and so he had lost
the chance to make money. Losing the chance to make money
can make somebody unhappy.
00:17:42
And so from
relatively early on, Mr. Davis was
complaining about fraud. KERI NIXON: My name
is Dr. Keri Nixon,
00:17:55
and I'm a consultant
forensic psychologist. I think Gregory Davis probably
missed the flags of deception.
00:18:03
I also think that
he was probably carried along by his charisma. I think Gumrukcu was quite
a charismatic individual who
00:18:11
was able to make people think
that they're going to be part of something successful.
00:18:17
So he was probably driven
by the need for money, the desire for financial gain. NARRATOR: Despite his concerns
about financial deception,
00:18:33
Gregory Davis
continued his business relationship with Serhat
Gumrukcu between 2015 and 2017.
00:18:40
- Mr. Davis's company was
owed $200,000, basically. A debt that was
created at the time
00:18:47
of the signing of those
documents in November of 2015. But there's also
late fees for Mr.
00:18:56
Gumrukcu's failure
to provide financing, which were $75,000 a month. There was some money
paid by Mr. Gumrukcu
00:19:07
over that basically
two-year time period, but nowhere near
the amount he was owed.
00:19:14
So in terms of late fees
and that initial payment, Mr. Davis was owed,
I think a little
00:19:18
over a million and a half
dollars by the end of 2017. NARRATOR: Police
discovered that
00:19:30
alongside
the potential oil deal, Serhat Gumrukcu's
multimillion dollar biotech merger with
the Danish billionaires
00:19:37
was about to take off. - In 2017, Mr. Gumrukcu decided
to get more involved, again,
00:19:47
back in medicine
and had come up what he believed was a cure for HIV. - He was going to be one
of the chief medical officers
00:19:57
at a biotech company,
which was at the forefront of these potential
cures for HIV.
00:20:02
- Serhat Gumrukcu was trying
to market his HIV cure with a group
of Danish billionaires
00:20:11
who were convinced
of the marketability and genius of Serhat
Gumrukcu's medical ideas.
00:20:22
ZACHARY STENDIG: In late
2017, Serhat Gumrukcu was on the cusp
of this multimillion
00:20:27
dollar biotech deal. That was the most lucrative
thing that Gumrukcu had going on at the time.
00:20:37
NARRATOR: In 2018,
the body of Gregory Davis had been found on an isolated
road in Vermont.
00:20:43
His death looked
like an execution. - From close to the beginning,
the investigators
00:20:51
suspected that this
murder had something to do with an oil deal gone
bad between Mr. Davis and
00:21:01
Serhat Gumrukcu. Investigators found
various messages where Mr. Davis was complaining
to Greg Gac about Serhat
00:21:12
in which he
explicitly was saying he was going to go to the FBI
and report that fraud.
00:21:19
So right from the beginning
of the investigation, Serhat was a person
of interest.
00:21:23
That doesn't mean
we could charge him or we were sure
what he'd done, but he was a suspect, let's call
it, from the very beginning.
00:21:32
NARRATOR: After the murder
of Gregory Davis, Serhat Gumrukcu was
interviewed by police
00:21:38
at his home in Los Angeles. - The agents just knew that
Serhat had this business
00:21:43
deal gone bad with
Greg Davis, and so they asked him questions
about the business
00:21:48
deal gone bad and his
background and those kind of questions. And Mr. Gumrukcu let's say,
minimized his involvement
00:21:57
in the oil deal. ZACHARY STENDIG:
It quickly became apparent to investigators
that Serhat Gumrukcu
00:22:04
was not the person who pulled
the trigger in this case. And so figuring out who
the players were in this
00:22:12
meant that it was not just
going to be the hitman. It might be the person
who wanted this
00:22:18
to happen in the first place. - When somebody hires
an assassin to kill, there's definitely
a separation.
00:22:26
They're paying that person,
they're arranging it, and without them, it
wouldn't be happening.
00:22:31
The more steps between yourself
and the ultimate crime, in this case, the murder
of somebody, the more separated
00:22:40
you are. So psychologically, you
feel less responsible. - One of the pieces of evidence
along the way that we
00:22:49
discovered was that Serhat
Gumrukcu had transferred a large amount of money to Berk
Eratay, who lived in Las Vegas.
00:23:02
And we eventually figured
out that Berk Eratay was a close associate
of Serhat Gumrukcu.
00:23:10
And we were able to uncover,
through investigative work, that Berk Eratay
withdrew a lot of money
00:23:19
in cash in 2017,
that might have been or that potentially was the
source of payments for the hit.
00:23:28
[crisp shuffle of money] NARRATOR: After police spoke
with Serhat Gumrukcu and Berk Eratay, they
began to consider who
00:23:42
else might have been involved. - This investigation was
always involved two tracks.
00:23:50
One track was finding
out who the hitman was, and the second
track was figuring out who hired the hitman.
00:23:58
From early on, we suspected
that the person who hired the hitman had
to have some sort
00:24:06
of relationship
with Mr. Davis that caused them to want him dead. But from the beginning,
we needed to figure
00:24:15
out who the hitman was. And so the second part
of the investigation was identifying
the identity of the hitman.
00:24:25
And then, of course, his
connection to somebody who might want Greg Davis dead. NARRATOR: As Mr. Davis
lived in such a remote area,
00:24:35
investigators started looking
at his cell phone activity around the time he was
abducted from his home.
00:24:41
PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: There
was a cell phone right from the beginning we
suspected was involved
00:24:45
in the hit, which
was a cell phone used right before the murder. The FBI was able
to determine pretty quickly
00:24:53
that that phone was
purchased at a Walmart in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. This was a phone
that we learned was
00:25:03
purchased in November of 2017. No phone call was ever
made on this phone, but the phone was
used for some data
00:25:13
and that phone was
on and transmitting data from Missouri
on January 4, traveled
00:25:20
all the way from
Missouri to Vermont to the area of Danville. And was in the area of Danville
when the murder took place, and
00:25:30
then soon after the kidnapping,
that phone was turned off and never used again. The other big piece
of evidence that we
00:25:38
had from the photographs
and video in Clearfield, Pennsylvania,
where the phone was purchased,
00:25:46
was this white Ford
Explorer that we believed the hitman was using to drive. So we had a phone and a car.
00:25:59
NARRATOR: Police focused
their efforts on tracing the white Ford Explorer. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: It
took us a little while
00:26:05
to get the records
associated with that vehicle, but when we did get
them, we learned
00:26:13
that a man named Jerry Banks
had possession of the vehicle at the time of the hit.
00:26:26
NARRATOR: Jerry Banks
was a 30-year-old truck driver
and construction worker who was living in Colorado.
00:26:33
ZACHARY STENDIG:
Jerry Banks, who was sort of down on his
luck at the time, had just recently broken
up with his girlfriend
00:26:39
and lost a job. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
Once we figured out that Jerry Banks
might be the hitman,
00:26:46
we were able to figure
out that Jerry Banks was close friends with a man
named Aaron Ethridge, who
00:26:54
lived in Las Vegas. ZACHARY STENDIG:
I think Ethridge was somebody who styled himself
as something of an outlaw.
00:27:04
He was one foot in and one foot
out of a sort of darker world. He was the sort of person
who somebody could go to,
00:27:12
to get drugs
or to have a connection to a world of criminality. Jerry Banks very much
viewed Aaron Ethridge
00:27:21
as a mentor of sorts, somebody
who he aspired to be like. So in that way, Aaron Ethridge
was able to demonstrate--
00:27:31
he had a lot of power over Mr.
Banks in terms of influence. NARRATOR: After linking Jerry
Banks to Aaron Ethridge,
00:27:40
police made another
crucial discovery. - Berk Eratay also
lived in Las Vegas, and investigators were able to
determine that Berk Eratay and
00:27:49
Aaron Ethridge were
actually neighbors for a time in Las Vegas, so the
two of them knew each other.
00:27:57
So this created a chain, let's
call it, from Jerry Banks to Aaron Ethridge. Aaron Ethridge
knows Berk Eratay,
00:28:07
Berk Eratay is
closely associated with Serhat Gumrukcu. NARRATOR: With four potential
suspects identified,
00:28:16
police began
looking for evidence of a criminal conspiracy
to murder Gregory Davis.
00:28:22
ZACHARY STENDIG: One
particular piece of evidence that we uncovered was
cryptocurrency transactions
00:28:29
between Aaron Ethridge's wallet
and Serhat Gumrukcu's wallet, which demonstrated
a direct link
00:28:36
in terms of financial
transactions between Ethridge and Gumrukcu. And we learned during
the course of the investigation
00:28:43
that it was facilitated
by Berk Eratay. So between June
and September of 2017, Gumrukcu wires about $300,000
in cryptocurrency to Eratay.
00:29:03
NARRATOR: Police
also discovered that around the time
of Gregory Davis's murder,
00:29:07
Serhat Gumrukcu was
involved in another fraud case in California. - We learned not only
that he was involved
00:29:16
in this potential cure for HIV
and a huge biotech deal, we also learned that he'd
been charged in California
00:29:23
and that a California
fraud case was pending against him in 2017. The heart of the California
fraud case
00:29:32
was a real estate
deal, in which it appeared from
the evidence in California that Mr. Gumrukcu
had ripped off or
00:29:40
defrauded a Turkish investor. ZACHARY STENDIG: It also
involved Serhat Gumrukcu taking money from somebody
who wanted to essentially flip
00:29:49
a house in California,
creating fake emails and pretending to be a lawyer
involved with the case.
00:29:56
And ultimately, Gumrukcu,
he took that money and bought a house for himself. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
But he was allowed
00:30:02
to plead guilty to a relatively
minor charge in that fraud case around the same time
as the biotech deal closed
00:30:10
and around the same time
as the murder happened. ZACHARY STENDIG: So all of that
was part and parcel to this,
00:30:16
because the California charges
were at issue when Gumrukcu was finalizing his
biotech deal, which
00:30:24
was ultimately
a multimillion dollar payday for Serhat Gumrukcu. NARRATOR: Police
began to suspect
00:30:33
that Serhat Gumrukcu's motive
for the murder of Gregory Davis was to prevent
further fraud charges
00:30:40
that could ruin
his multimillion dollar biotech deal. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
There was this link
00:30:45
between Mr. Davis's complaints
about Mr. Gumrukcu and Mr. Gumrukcu wanting
to start this new life
00:30:55
as a biotech genius. And that this
business deal gone bad was something that Mr.
Gumrukcu wanted to bury,
00:31:06
wanted to be swept
under the rug, didn't want this business deal
and all of its various frauds
00:31:11
and lies over the years to be
something that haunted him in this new life
that he was trying
00:31:17
to create as a biotech genius. TYLER DUMONT: For Gumrukcu,
Gregory Davis needed to go.
00:31:25
He had all this other
stuff going on in his life, and Gregory Davis
was a liability.
00:31:29
NARRATOR: In early 2022, after
four years of investigation, the criminal conspiracy
started to fall apart when
00:31:37
those involved began to talk. ZACHARY STENDIG:
FBI and members of the Vermont State
Police traveled
00:31:43
to Nevada in April of 2022. They interviewed
Aaron Ethridge, and Mr. Ethridge confessed
to his own involvement
00:31:53
and outlined Serhat
Gumrukcu's involvement in the murder for hire scheme. - And that among other pieces
of evidence that we eventually
00:32:00
developed was sufficient for us
to charge Jerry Banks, which we did in the spring of 2022.
00:32:15
NARRATOR: In summer
2022, police arrested Serhat
Gumrukcu and Berk Eratay for their part in the plot
to murder Gregory Davis.
00:32:25
ZACHARY STENDIG: He was
charged with three counts, substantive murder
for hire, as we say,
00:32:30
so that involves
the death of Gregory Davis and that he hired
Jerry Banks to do it.
00:32:36
He was also charged
with conspiracy to commit murder for hire. So there was an agreement
between other individuals,
00:32:43
specifically Aaron Ethridge,
Berk Eratay and Jerry Banks to cause the death
of Gregory Davis.
00:32:51
All four participants wanted
a crime to take place, and so they agreed that each
person would play a part in it.
00:32:59
NARRATOR: Berk Eratay, Aaron
Ethridge, and Jerry Banks admitted their part
in the murder of Gregory Davis,
00:33:06
while Serhat Gumrukcu
pled not guilty to all charges of murder. - This case came down
to whether or not
00:33:13
Berk Eratay did
this on his own, or did it because Serhat
Gumrukcu wanted him to do it.
00:33:19
That's what this
case came down to. And Mr. Gumrukcu went to trial
in March and April of 2025.
00:33:27
NARRATOR: The trial took
place in Burlington, Vermont, where the prosecution
faced a daunting task
00:33:34
of condensing seven years
of evidence for the jury. - One of the challenges where
you have multiple jurisdictions
00:33:42
is the availability of evidence
and the transparency of that evidence. So it is quite
challenging to piece
00:33:49
together transactions
that go through a number of jurisdictions. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: One of
the biggest challenges for us
00:33:58
as prosecutors,
as investigators, was how to take all
of this evidence and make it
understandable to 12
00:34:07
regular people in five weeks. NARRATOR: The first
crucial piece of evidence was Serhat Gumrukcu's
interview in 2018,
00:34:15
in which he downplayed his
involvement in the oil deal with Gregory Davis. - Mr. Gumrukcu may even
have admitted on the stand
00:34:23
that he wasn't entirely
honest with the agents in his interview
in April of 2018.
00:34:30
So what an important piece
of evidence for us in the case was the fact that
Serhat Gumrukcu
00:34:35
lied to the authorities
about the oil deal in 2018. NARRATOR: Also crucial
to the prosecution's case
00:34:45
was the cooperation
of the others involved. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF:
All three people
00:34:50
involved, the other
three defendants all implicated Mr. Gumrukcu
as the person in charge
00:34:57
in different ways. Mr. Eratay said he was
working for Mr. Gumrukcu. Mr. Ethridge said he
was told by Mr. Eratay
00:35:08
that they were working
for Mr. Gumrukcu. And even Mr. Banks
heard from Mr. Ethridge
00:35:14
that they were committing the
murder for the Turkish prince. And there was only
one person who was a--
00:35:22
posing as a Turkish prince in
this, and that's Mr. Gumrukcu. NARRATOR: When Berk
Eratay took the stand,
00:35:34
he admitted accepting $110,000
from Serhat Gumrukcu to arrange the hit on Gregory Davis.
00:35:42
- There were several
crucial pieces of evidence. One of them was
the testimony of Berk Eratay.
00:35:47
Eratay was able to offer
significant evidence as to motive, and he
was also able to provide
00:35:53
firsthand account
of Gumrukcu's involvement. He remembered
conversations with Gumrukcu
00:35:59
about the murder for hire,
and he went to Gumrukcu each step of the way. TYLER DUMONT:
As the details of this case
00:36:06
continued to come
out, it was almost like you're watching a movie. The level of planning
that went into this
00:36:14
from going online
and buying this fake uniform to look like a US
marshal to then
00:36:22
going to the victim's house. The level of planning that
went on to make this happen,
00:36:29
it got more unbelievable
the more we learned. ZACHARY STENDIG: Ethridge
and Banks asked for more money
00:36:35
after they determined that
Davis would need to be separated from his house. And it was Eratay who went
to Gumrukcu to get that money.
00:36:44
And it was that
money that helped pay for the fake US marshals
clothing as well as the vehicle
00:36:51
that Banks
ultimately purchased, the Police Interceptor
vehicle, that he used to trick Davis
into believing that he
00:36:58
really was under arrest. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: And Mr.
Eratay described at the trial
00:37:03
that Serhat Gumrukcu
told him that he wanted to get rid of Mr. Davis
because Mr. Davis could disrupt
00:37:11
his life and mess
with his future, and that's what we
argued was the motive. BRYANNA FOX: But ultimately
led to Davis's death
00:37:21
was that he had
decided he was done, and he was going to turn
the rest of the group
00:37:26
in to law enforcement. When they got wind
of that, that was when they decided he's got to go.
00:37:32
And that was what
led to his murder. ZACHARY STENDIG:
Gumrukcu's charisma was a big part of, I
think, Serhat Gumrukcu
00:37:46
convincing Berk
Eratay to participate in the murder for hire. Serhat Gumrukcu
approached Berk Eratay,
00:37:54
as the trial testimony
demonstrates, and essentially said, you're going
to lose me in your life
00:38:01
if Gregory Davis goes
to the authorities. And I think that deeply
impacted Berk Eratay
00:38:08
and that motivated Berk Eratay
to participate in this scheme. And I think Berk
Eratay feared losing
00:38:16
Gumrukcu as his employer,
but also his friend. NARRATOR: Aaron Ethridge
told the court he
00:38:24
received $110,000
from Berk Eratay to help facilitate the murder. - Aaron Ethridge
also knew Berk Eratay
00:38:33
because they used to be
next door neighbors, and he had also sold
drugs to Serhat Gumrukcu
00:38:37
on several occasions and worked
for Gumrukcu as a bodyguard. Aaron Ethridge is
an emotional person.
00:38:45
His testimony was tear-filled. It was marked by emotional
outbursts in that he needed
00:38:56
time to compose himself. NARRATOR: When Jerry
Banks took the stand, he admitted being paid $100,000
for his role as the hitman.
00:39:09
- Jerry Banks was deeply
affected by his actions in this case, which he
testified about at length.
00:39:16
And his testimony was alarming. His testimony was sobering. He remembered in great detail
Mr. Davis's kidnapping.
00:39:29
He testified about
a conversation that he had while he was
driving Mr. Davis, after he had
00:39:35
placed Mr. Davis under arrest. Jerry Banks testified
that at one point, Gregory Davis asked Jerry Banks
if Jerry Banks believed in God.
00:39:46
Jerry Banks said no. And it was just
moments after that that Jerry Banks pulled his
car to the side of the road
00:39:54
and ultimately shot Gregory
Davis more than a dozen times in the back. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: Those are
powerful pieces of evidence,
00:40:07
even though they
don't necessarily prove that Serhat
Gumrukcu hired everybody. But trials are about many
things, and what we try to do
00:40:19
is put together a trial
that was persuasive overall. BRYANNA FOX: Gumrukcu
fashioned himself like a CEO.
00:40:26
He was the executor
of this organized fraud where he was at the center. But just like the old
organized crime
00:40:36
mafia schemes where you
had the center spoke that really didn't
touch anything themselves, meaning they
felt more protected.
00:40:44
NARRATOR: During
the trials, Serhat Gumrukcu's entire
background was revealed to be an elaborate fraud.
00:40:50
ZACHARY STENDIG:
Serhat Gumrukcu was essentially
able to convince people to believe in him.
00:40:54
He's willing to go
to great lengths to appear to be a doctor. Serhat Gumrukcu's
purchased degrees
00:40:59
from a real Russian
institution. Serhat Gumrukcu did
not earn those degrees, but he had physical
documents in his name
00:41:07
that said he was a doctor. He was willing to go
the extra mile to appear to be what he said he was.
00:41:16
And I think that was a hallmark
of his fraud in his business dealings, in his professional
life as a healer, and
00:41:26
ultimately, what caused him to
need Greg Davis to be killed, which was that he purported
to be somebody with access
00:41:35
to a lot of money and able to
facilitate an oil transaction when I think
the evidence made clear
00:41:40
that he never had that
money and he never intended to pay for any oil. - Everything we need
to know about this man
00:41:49
is the level of deception
that he's willing to go to. He was willing to lie that
he was a medical doctor
00:41:58
and present himself, not only
as a doctor, but a doctor that could treat cancer.
00:42:05
He loved the admiration. This is the kind of person that
we'll see rush into a situation
00:42:11
that they haven't got the
knowledge to do because they admire that admiration. NARRATOR: Towards
the end of the trial,
00:42:19
Serhat Gumrukcu took the stand. - His defense was
essentially, I lied about a lot of different
things in my life.
00:42:27
I've committed
fraud, but I'm not lying to you, members
of the jury, when I tell you that I was not
involved in the murder
00:42:35
of Gregory Davis. And I thought Assistant
US Attorney Van de Graaf's cross-examination
was incredibly
00:42:44
well done, masterful. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: So I had
an exhibit that I found, which was his interview in 2006
with a Turkish magazine.
00:42:55
And so in the article,
one of the things he says is that I have the power
with my mind to break
00:43:00
up people's kidney stones. And so I decided
to cross-examine him about this statement.
00:43:09
One of the things
I said, do you still believe you
can break people's kidney stones with your mind?
00:43:14
Because I thought there
was no good answer he could give to that. He said, only my own.
00:43:22
Maybe that says
everything about Serhat. I don't know. He's saying, yeah, I lied about
breaking other people's kidney
00:43:27
stones, but I still think
I can break my own kidney stone with my mind. - He's the ultimate con man.
00:43:32
Everything about him is a lie. I think Mr. Gumrukcu
rationalizes his offending in that
he thinks that he
00:43:40
is superior and special. And that, I think,
there's part of him that actually
believes his own lies,
00:43:49
which is something that we
see in this level of deceptor. And he thinks he's
superior to all
00:43:54
those people,
so they're deserving almost of his manipulation. They're just pawns to be used.
00:44:03
NARRATOR: In April
2025, Serhat Gumrukcu was found guilty of arranging
the murder of Gregory Davis
00:44:11
and now faces a mandatory
life sentence. His three co-conspirators
were sentenced
00:44:17
to between 8 and 16 years. [somber music] BRYANNA FOX: This case
involving Serhat Gumrukcu
00:44:26
is very complex,
but ultimately, it boils down to a few things. He was this very
successful con man
00:44:34
in that he had been
able to defraud numerous people across multiple
countries and continents.
00:44:41
By the time he got
to Davis, unfortunately, he had been conning
people so often that he
00:44:48
had this invincibility air. He thought, there's no chance
I'm going to get caught.
00:44:52
But thankfully, his entire
network was exposed. - At the end of the day,
a soured business deal
00:45:00
destroyed countless lives. I mean, this took a father,
a husband, damaged a community.
00:45:09
Not only that, but all of those
involved in targeting him have lost their lives
in some way.
00:45:17
So business, money,
was it worth it? ZACHARY STENDIG: When Gregory
Davis's life was stolen
00:45:30
by Jerry Banks, his wife
was pregnant with their seventh child, and his seventh
child never even had the chance
00:45:36
to-- to meet her father. So it was an incredibly
tragic case. Ms. Davis became a single
mother of seven kids,
00:45:45
and it was just senseless. It's not every day
in the United States that somebody
pretends to be a sworn
00:45:52
member of law enforcement,
kidnaps somebody and then executes them. It's one I hope I
don't encounter again.
00:46:00
- I'd never had a case
quite like this before. No, there were times
when I worried that we'd
00:46:05
never solve this case. As a federal prosecutor,
you're handling people's lives. There are very
significant things,
00:46:13
and I've had many cases
that stick with me and have stuck with
me over the years.
00:46:17
But certainly,
this trial, finding justice for Melissa Davis,
it'll never leave me.
00:46:24
[somber music] [music playing]