Who is Serhat Gumrukcu? Biotech tycoon charged with plotting murder of Gregory Davis FAKED his medical degree
Serhat Gumrukcu, 39, the Turkish biotech tycoon accused of plotting the murder of a Vermont father killed in 2018, is a former magician who allegedly forged his own medical degree to deceive US healthcare executives, including Dr Anthony Fauci, DailyMail reported on Tuesday, June 28. Gumrukcu founded the company, claiming extensive medical training and a PhD from a Russian university, but he is not licensed to practice in the United States. However, prosecutors also said there is no firm proof that his degree is real.
Gumrukcu can be seen in YouTube videos from 2002, when he was still a teenager, performing magic tricks in Turkey. He was introduced as a medical student and went by the stage name “Dr No” He later moved to the US to woo Silicon Valley and the healthcare industry. Not more than a decade after Gumrukcu moved to the US, he established his multimillion-dollar oil and real-estate deals. Yet his best-known venture was in medicine.
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Gumrukcu was detained on May 24 at LAX Airport on suspicion of plotting the assassination of the 2018 murder of Gregory Davis, a colleague who the government believes was going to report him for fraud to the FBI. He is currently being held in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles on suspicion of planning a murder. The 39-year-lawyer old’s attorney, Victor Sherman, claims his innocence. “I’m not saying this is a weak case against Mr. Gumrukcu,” Mr Sherman told the judge. “I’m saying there is no case.” Davis was found shot dead on a snowy bank on the side of the road near his home the day after a mysterious man appeared at his home, posing as a US Marshal, and claiming he needed to question him.
According to the prosecutors, Gumrukcu hired the hitman, since identified as Jerry Banks, through two middle-men to kidnap and kill Davis to stop him from reporting him to the FBI. According to court documents obtained by DailyMail, the two had entered an oil deal years earlier but had broken up. Gumrukcu and his brother lied to Davis about the profits of their deal, in Davis’ opinion. Gumrukcu had also been charged in California state court with writing checks that bounced.
Gumrukcu's social media page shows him mixing with celebrities like Helen Mirren and Boy George, and his company was so impressed with its research into curing diseases that it caught the eye of Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. An email obtained by The Wall Street Journal reveals that Fauci told his staff at the National Health Institute to meet with Gumrukcu and his colleague to discuss their research into curing Hepatitis B.
Who is Serhat Gumrukcu?
Gumrukcu was born and raised mostly in Turkey but spent time in Europe and the Middle East, he said in a podcast interview last year. Gumrukcu cofounded Enochian Biosciences, which claims to be developing treatments for cancer, Hepatitis, and HIV. The company is listed on the NASDAQ with a valuation of $137million, of which he is believed to own $98million.
“Dr Gumrukcu is one of those rare geniuses that is not bound by scientific discipline or dogma. He sees connections and opportunities often missed,” Enochian Vice Chairman Mark Dybul, now chief executive, said in a 2019 news release about Enochian’s licensing of a hepatitis B drug from a company controlled by Gumrukcu. Gumrukcu’s success as a biotech entrepreneur afforded the purchase last year of an $18.4 million office complex in North Hollywood, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, and, earlier, a $5.5 million house in the Hollywood Hills, according to the Wall Street Journal.