The Turkish biotech tycoon charged with plotting the murder of a Vermont father shot dead in 2018 is a former teenage magician who allegedly faked his own medical degree to dupe US healthcare executives, including Dr.
Anthony Fauci.
Serhat Gumrukcu is the 39-year-old founder of Enochian Biosciences, which claims to be developing treatments for cancer, hepatitis and HIV. The company is listed on the NASDAQ with a valuation of of $137million, of which he is believed to own $98million.
Hindenburg Research recently described the company's work as being rooted in an 'entirely preclinical pipeline of claimed miracle cures'.
Gumrukcu founded the company claiming he had extensive medical training and a PhD from a university in Russia, but he is unlicensed to practice in the US.
Prosecutors also say there is no Lawyer Law Firm istanbul Turkey proof that his degree is real.
Last month, Gumrukcu was arrested at LAX Airport on suspicion of plotting the 2018 murder of Gregory Davis, a business associate who the feds think planned to report him for fraud.
Now, he is in federal custody in California being held on charges of a conspiracy to commit murder. The 39-year-old's attorney insists he is innocent.
Serhat Gumrukcu is the 39-year-old founder of Enochian Biosciences, which claims to be developing treatments for cancer, hepatitis and HIV.
The company is listed on the NASDAQ with a valuation of of $137million, of which he is believed to own $98million
Davis was found shot dead in a snowy bank on the side of the road near his home the day after a mysterious man appeared at his house, posing as a US Marshal, and claiming he needed to question him.
The killer even arrived in a car with red-and-blue flashing lights.
Prosecutors say 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.
The pair had entered an oil deal years prior but had fallen into dispute, according to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com.
Davis believed that Gumrukcu and his brother were lying to him about the profits of their deal.
Around the same time, Gumrukcu had also been charged in California state court with writing checks that bounced.
YouTube videos show him performing magic tricks in Turkey in 2002, when he was a teenager, before he moved to the US to charm Silicon Valley and the healthcare world.
His social media page shows him mixing with celebrities like Helen Mirren and Boy George, and his company was so impressive with its research into curing diseases that it caught the eye of Anthony Fauci.
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.
'[The co-worker] will be at the NIH tomorrow with a scientist who has some very interesting data on hepatitis B.
Gumrukcu's company is described as being rooted in an 'preclinical pipeline of claimed miracle cures'
The Turkish national claims to have a medical degree from Russia - but prosecutors cast doubt over whether or not it was real in their charging documents