Updated at 6:59 p.m.
Prosecutors say a California business investor wanted a Vermont man dead because he feared the victim would go to the FBI with damning information about alleged fraud in a “multimillion-dollar oil deal” between them, according to newly released documents.
A court filing by federal prosecutors on Monday provides the first look into the motive and connections among four men from three different states. They have been charged within the past two months in what authorities have called a murder-for-hire plot, in which Gregory Davis, 49, of Danville was kidnapped and shot to death in January 2018.
Serhat Gumrukcu, 39, of Los Angeles, and Berk Eratay, 35, of Las Vegas, were both arrested last week after being indicted by a federal grand jury in Vermont. The two men are each charged with conspiring to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of the murder scheme.
Federal prosecutors in Nevada, in a filing that seeks to hold Eratay in custody while the case against him is ongoing, went into greater detail about the alleged plot and reported that one of the defendants had confessed.
Early in the investigation, they wrote, Serhat Gumrukcu was identified as a likely suspect in the murder because he and his brother, Murat Gumrukcu, were the only people who appeared to have a dispute with Davis that “would potentially be a motive for Davis’s execution.”
“In 2017, Davis was threatening the Gumrukcus about going to the FBI with evidence that the Gumrukcus were defrauding him in a multimillion-dollar oil deal that the Gumrukcus had entered into with Davis in early 2015,” according to the document signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Operskalski, of the District of Nevada.
“The Gumrukcus failed to perform on the deal,” the prosecutor said. “Davis believed that the Gumrukcus had lied to him about various matters.”
At that same time, the document indicated, Serhat Gumrukcu was facing felony fraud charges in California state court, which included allegations of bounced checks that Serhat Gumrukcu had provided to the “middleman” in the oil deal.
On those bounced checks, Serhat Gumrukcu reportedly falsely referred to himself as “HRH Serhat Gumrukcu,” a reference to “His Royal Highness.”
On Jan. 25, 2018, California court records show he pleaded no contest to second-degree commercial burglary and was sentenced to five years of probation.
Also in 2017, the filing stated, Serhat Gumrukcu was putting together what turned out to be a successful deal after the murder: securing a significant ownership stake in a California biotechnology company, Enochian BioSciences.
“Gumrukcu therefore had a strong motive to prevent Davis from reporting yet another fraud, and likely threatening the Enochian deal,” Operskalski said.
Serhat Gumrukcu appears to own more than $100 million worth of Enochian stock, according to authorities. And about a week before his arrest earlier this month, he sold some of his stock for $2 million in cash.
“Neither Serhat nor Murat Gumrukcu had traveled to Vermont to personally kill Davis, so the most likely plot involved a hired killer,” the prosecutor said.
Murat Gumrukcu, who lives in Turkey, apparently visited the United States between December 2017 and March 2018, and was staying at Eratay’s former apartment in Las Vegas at the time of Davis’s killing.
The Gumrukcu brothers were interviewed in early 2018 about the murder and denied any involvement. Murat Gumrukcu has not returned to the U.S. since March 2018, authorities said.
Prosecutors said the investigation then turned to identifying the alleged hitman. In 2020, they got a break in the case when a Colorado man named Jerry Banks was identified as a suspect, prosecutors said.
Banks, 34, was arrested in Wyoming in April on a charge that he kidnapped Davis. Aron Lee Ethridge, 41, of Henderson, Nevada, was also detained on a charge that he conspired with Banks in the kidnapping.
Police say Banks took Davis from his home on Jan. 6, 2018, by posing as a U.S. marshal who came to arrest him on racketeering charges.
A day later, Davis was found dead in a snowbank in Barnet, 15 miles from his home, handcuffed and shot in the head and torso.
The FBI believes Banks had been paid to kill Davis, since police could not find a personal connection between the two men. So far, nobody has been charged in the killing of Davis.
Prosecutors said the probe uncovered a chain connecting the four men charged in the case: Banks was friends with Ethridge, and Ethridge is a friend of Eratay, who worked for Gumrukcu.
Multiple pieces of evidence supported the link, such as Banks meeting with Ethridge on various occasions in late 2017 as the murder scheme was being finalized, authorities said.
“Ethridge was the first person Banks telephoned after the murder,” Operskalski wrote. “The first call Ethridge made after receiving the post-murder call from Banks was to Eratay’s phone.”
Authorities said Ethridge has admitted to his role in Davis’s kidnapping and killing.
“Ethridge admitted that he hired Banks to kill Davis and that he was in turn hired by Eratay (his former neighbor and friend for years) and Gumrukcu to find someone to murder Davis,” Operskalski wrote.
Ethridge reportedly communicated with his co-defendants using an encrypted messaging app called Threema.
“Ethridge’s admissions are highly credible, as they are consistent with the other evidence in the case,” the prosecutor said, adding that the government expects Ethridge to testify at trial against Banks, Eratay and Gumrukcu.
Financial records for Eratay, whom authorities said identified himself as Gumrukcu’s assistant, showed more than $150,000 in wire transfers from Turkish accounts Gumrukcu controlled between June and October 2017, “as the murder scheme was building,” according to the court filing.
“Eratay carefully and secretly transformed those funds into cash at the same time,” the document stated. “Further, Eratay’s email account showed that he documented personal information about Davis in July 2017, including his full name, date of birth, place of birth, and cell phone with a Vermont area code.”
Ethridge received over $110,000 in cash from Eratay as payment for the murder, according to a law enforcment filing in support of a search warrant in the case made public Tuesday.
The initial plan, according to the filing, had been for Banks to “snipe” Davis, according to the filing. But after Banks made a reconnaissance trip to Vermont, “Banks advised the plan would have to be revised and requested additional payment due to the increased difficulty of the job.”
After Davis’ murder, authorities wrote, Eratay provided Ethridge with additional payment in the form of Bitcoin. The filing doesn’t indicate how much more was paid.
Davis, according to his obituary, grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, and had lived in Vermont for only a short time before his death. He was survived by a wife and six children.
Eratay and Gumrukcu’s charge of conspiring to commit murder for hire is punishable by up to life in prison. The government could also seek the death penalty. Each kidnapping charge against Banks and Ethridge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
All the defendants are currently detained. Banks is at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, where Ethridge was held before being placed in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
In a detention hearing Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas, Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach granted the government’s request to keep Eratay in jail while his case is being heard.
Prosecutors had opposed Eratay's request to be released into the custody of a friend, saying he has reasons to flee the U.S. and could pose a threat to public safety. They say Eratay, who is a dual citizen of Turkey and the U.S., has the money to hide, obtain fake passports and travel undetected internationally.
Eratay reportedly admitted to police that Gumrukcu has given him Enochian stock worth about $100,000. Authorities said he has training in computer and software technology, and could potentially override an electronic ankle monitor.
“Eratay needs to be guarded, but the only guards that can effectively assure Eratay’s appearance are correction officials,” Operskalski said in his filing Monday. “When Eratay’s own life and liberty are at stake, there is reason to believe he would act to kill or otherwise gain advantage in a criminal case.”
The prosecutor said Gumrukcu has a strong motive to encourage Eratay to leave the U.S.
Eratay is scheduled to return to the Las Vegas courthouse for an identity hearing on Thursday, the same day that Gumrukcu is scheduled for a detention hearing at a federal courthouse in Los Angeles.
Attorney Victor Sherman of Los Angeles, who is listed in court filings as representing Gumrukcu, declined to comment when reached Tuesday. He referred questions to attorney Roy Black of Florida, who he said was Gumrukcu’s primary lawyer.
A call to Black’s office Tuesday seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Black, according to his profile page on his law firm’s website, has represented many famous clients including the late Rush Limbaugh, Kelsey Grammar, WIlliam Kennedy Smith, and Indy race car and Dancing with the Stars champion Helio Castroneves.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Prosecutors allege cover-up of multimillion-dollar fraud was motive for Vermont man’s murder.