All language subtitles for Fatal.Fraud.S01E07.1080p.WEB.h264-CODSWALLOP_track3_[eng]

(Narrator) Every fraud
begins with a promise...

He purported to be somebody
with access to a lot of money.

(Narrator) A quick fortune,
easy money,

or a life transformed overnight.

Between June and September
of 2017, there's about

$300,000 in cryptocurrency.

(Narrator) But behind
these illusions lie

calculated deceptions
carefully hidden in plain sight.

He had lost
the chance to make money.

Losing the chance to make money
can make somebody unhappy.

(Narrator) Sometimes, these
criminals are backed into a corner

and feel their only
way out is to kill.

(Bryanna Fox)
He went along with it,

and sadly, willingly went
along with it to his own death.

(theme music)

(calm music)

(Paul Van De Graaf) Danville
is a small town in Vermont.

It's in an area
called the Northeast Kingdom,

which is a rural,
mostly farming area of the state.

My name is Paul Van de Graaf.

I was the principal prosecutor

in the investigation.

On the afternoon of January 7,
a couple

that lived in the area
was driving down a road

called Peacham Road
in Barnet, Vermont,

and saw what appeared to be
something suspicious in a snowbank

along the side of the road.

They stopped.

They noticed that it was a body.

They called the State Police.

(eerie music)

(Tyler Dumont) Authorities say
the remains of a man who

had been brutally murdered were
found partially covered in snow

on a pull-off along Peacham
Road Sunday afternoon.

He died from multiple gunshot
wounds to the head and torso.

(Tyler)
My name is Tyler Dumont.

I was a general assignment
reporter at WCAX-TV.

This was a very violent crime,
you know,

someone who was shot multiple
times in the head and back.

It was like a scene
out of the movies,

a scene out of "The Sopranos",
a targeted, violent crime.

(calm music)

(Narrator) The victim
was later identified

as 49-year-old Gregory Davis.

(Paul) Gregory Davis
was a religious man

married to Melissa Davis.

They raised a large family.

At the time of the murder,
Greg Davis 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.

They'd moved to Danville
hoping that they

could raise their family there.

(Tyler) Gregory Davis lived
in a really quiet neighbourhood.

It is the type of place
where people are close.

They leave their doors unlocked.

They feel safe.

(Paul) It was a surprise
to the community.

The Davises had not
lived there that long.

There was a...
a mystery to be solved,

and I was going to be part of the
team helping solve that mystery.

That is,
why was this person killed?

(Narrator) Police discovered
that Gregory Davis

worked for a local oil company.

(Paul)
At the time he was murdered,

he had a regular 9:00 to 5:00 job
with an oil company in Vermont.

He hoped to get involved
in large-scale,

financially remunerative
oil transactions.

But the evidence showed
that he really wasn't

super successful at doing that.

(Zachary Stendig)
My name is Zachary Stendig.

I'm an assistant US attorney
here in Vermont.

Davis was, essentially,
an aspiring businessman.

He was somebody who wanted
to support his family,

and he was trying to do that

through these potential
oil transactions.

(tense music)

(Narrator) The police
were puzzled as to why

a seemingly ordinary
family man would be

killed in a mafia-style execution.

(Paul)
Mr Davis's body had handcuffs

behind his back and over
12 bullets in his body and head.

(tense music)

(Zachary) So when we talked
with investigators,

they told us that
it was a homicide.

Police told us that they did not
have any suspects in custody

and that the investigation
was still very active.

They also told us a few
other interesting things.

One, that it was
a targeted shooting,

not something that
they suspected was random.

(tense music)

They also told us that the US
Attorney's Office was involved.

That, to me, was unusual.

(tense music)

(Narrator) From the start
of the investigation,

police realised they would
need the help

of multiple agencies
to help trace the killer.

From early on,
we believed that the hitman

had come from outside Vermont.

(Tyler) There is no easy way
to get to Danville.

You had to really make
a plan to get there.

There's no major airport
in Danville, you know?

We're talking hours to
get anywhere by car.

So this was something that was
strategic and planned to execute.

(suspenseful music)

(Narrator) When police interviewed
Gregory Davis's wife, Melissa,

she revealed a shocking detail.

(Paul) So on January 6,
around 9 o'clock at night,

a man dressing as a US Marshal

arrived in a white Ford Explorer

and knocked on the Davises' door.

He presented himself
as a Marshal,

saying he has arrest warrant
for Mr Davis.

And in short order,
he left with Mr Davis in his car,

putting handcuffs on him
after he left the house,

before he got into the car.

When somebody comes to your door
with lights flashing

in the background,
purports to be a US Marshal,

presents you with
an arrest warrant,

I understand why
Greg Davis complied.

(Paul)
Melissa Davis, she was

surprised that he was arrested.

She had very little experience
with the criminal justice system.

She didn't know
what was happening.

She'd hoped that she'd hear
about it the next day.

So she suspected it might take
a while before she heard from him.

She sent him some texts.

He didn't respond.

The next day, she became more
nervous about things,

talked to her mother-in-law,
talked to other people,

wondering what had happened
to her husband.

(suspenseful music)

They thought it was
a misunderstanding,

that they were concerned that
there was no reason

for Mr Davis to be under arrest.

But in the United States,
when law enforcement

requests submission,
I think most people submit.

And that's exactly
what happened in this case.

And tragically,
it led to Mr Davis's death.

(suspenseful music)

(eerie music)

(Narrator) The revelation
that Gregory Davis was killed

by a man posing as a US Marshal
brought the case

to the attention of the FBI.

(Bryanna) I'm Dr Bryanna Fox.

I'm a psychological criminologist
at the University of South Florida

and a former FBI Special Agent.

According to the FBI's
original profiles,

there are two main styles
of behaviour

when it comes to
these types of crimes.

There are the more disorganised,
which are impulsive, haphazard,

spontaneous in nature.

And there are those
that are more premeditated.

And that is certainly what
happened with the Davis murder.

It was planned down to the tee.

(tense music)

(Paul)
The suspected hitman or murderer

had posed as a US Marshal to get
Mr Davis out of his house

before he was murdered.

And that federal involvement
of a bogus US Marshal

certainly suggested that there
might be some federal reason

to investigate the case.

(tense music)

(Narrator) In Danville, Virginia,
the FBI and state police

had begun looking
at Gregory Davis's

records to try and discover exactly
who he had been involved with.

(Paul)
We had to figure out

who was angry enough or involved
in a dispute with Mr Davis

enough to want
to kill him in this

very methodical
and premeditated way.

If it was a hitman, how that
hitman was hired and who he was.

(Zachary) Law enforcement quickly
went into Mr Davis's email.

They went through text messages
and other electronic communications,

and they found numerous messages
involving a man named Gregory Gak.

(eerie music)

Mr Gak was living in Minnesota.
He was a banker.

He had a reputable past.

He graduated from Wharton.
He had worked for the CIA.

He had lucrative business dealings

with the state of Illinois,
for example.

And he was a fairly
well-off, successful

person who often
worked as a middleman

in financial transactions.

(Narrator) The emails
showed that Gregory Davis

and Gregory Gak were involved
in a lucrative oil transaction.

(Paul) Gregory Gak,
we learned early on,

was a middleman in that oil deal.

And so relatively early on,
we spoke with Mr Gak,

who began cooperating
in January of 2018.

(Narrator) Gregory Gak told police
the multimillion-dollar deal

was being brokered
by Gregory Davis

for a wealthy California-based
Turkish businessman

named Serhat Gumurkcu.

(Paul)
From a very early stage,

Serhat Gumurkcu
was a person of interest.

(calm music)

A scientist and a healer,

he was also an incredibly
charismatic person.

He purported to be somebody
with access to a lot of money.

(calm music)

(Narrator)
39-year-old Serhat Gumurkcu

was a wealthy Turkish entrepreneur
who arrived in California in 2013.

Gumurkcu had business interests,
including real estate,

pharmaceuticals, and oil trading.

Mr Gumurkcu is certainly one
of the more complex individuals

that I've ever been involved with.

He had three phases
of his career, so to speak.

His first phase of his career
was college in Turkey.

He began with a goal
of becoming a doctor.

He got deeply involved
in alternative healing

techniques, as well as some
alternative sort of thinking,

including mind-body control.

(Narrator) As well as claiming
to have a PhD in medicine,

Gumurkcu styled himself
as an entrepreneur

and member of the Turkish elite.

(Paul) In the second phase
of his adult life,

he was trying to be
involved in business.

He would regularly
call himself a prince.

At the time,
he was also a magician.

(suspenseful music)

(Narrator)
Gumurkcu's interest in magic

brought him into contact
with fellow magician and

Turkish businessman Berk Eratay.

(Zachary) In terms
of Serhat's background,

I think Berk Eratay
was really crucial.

Berk Eratay had originally
met Serhat Gumurkcu in Turkey.

They bonded over
both being magicians

and working in that field.

And they both travelled
from Turkey

to the United States together,

where their relationship
continued.

(Narrator) Between 2013 and 2015,
Serhat Gumurkcu

and Berk Eratay pursued a number of
business interests in California.

(calm music)

After Gumurkcu came
to the United States,

he started all of his
financial exploits again,

but this time, bigger and broader.

He had several different schemes,
including treatments for cancer,

a house-flipping business.

These were, you know,
hugely profitable.

Many people were wowed
or astounded by his brilliance.

He had various alternative
healing procedures

that he used, whether it was
stem cell treatments

or just general mindfulness
therapies.

He was involved in a variety
of alternative healing techniques

with different patients
internationally.

(Narrator)
Serhat Gumurkcu's talents

attracted international investment,

including funding from a group
of Danish billionaires

for a new biotech venture.

I always believed
there is no such thing

as an incurable disease.

The only thing we can do is,
we have to use our creativity.

We have to use our imagination.

And we have to look at things
from a different perspective

than the other scientists to be
able to find things that

they weren't able to find so far.

(eerie music)

(Narrator) While Serhat Gumurkcu
was very much the driving force

of these business ventures,
Berk Eratay

was always on hand for support.

(Zachary) I think Eratay's
relationship with Serhat Gumurkcu

as an associate, but also
as a close personal friend...

Eratay had a lot to gain if
Serhat Gumurkcu was successful

and that Eratay could, sort of,
ride Gumurkcu's coattails

for years, so to speak.

(Paul) So one of the things
about Serhat Gumurkcu

is that he had
incredible charisma.

He also tried to get involved in a
variety of business transactions,

including real estate transactions
and this oil deal

that was involved
in the centre of his

relationship with Gregory Davis.

(Narrator) Police had discovered
that in 2015,

Gregory Davis had been approached
by Gregory Gak

to broker a multimillion-dollar
oil deal

for Serhat Gumurkcu.

(Paul)
So the initial oil deal

involving Mr Gumurkcu and Mr Davis

was put together by Mr Gak.

Mr Davis was involved
with a group of people

that had oil to sell.

And Mr Gak got involved
as the middleman between

the buyers and the sellers.

(Narrator) In order for
the multimillion-dollar deal

to proceed, Gregory Davis
asked for written proof

that Mr Gumurkcu had access to
the funds to purchase the oil.

My name is Fiona Hotston Moore,
and I'm a forensic accountant

and expert witness.

(tense music)

So normally when you're looking
at large corporate transactions

between parties,
the lawyers on both sides

would be doing due diligence
on the other side

and would be verifying
that the funds

are actually available and
legitimately can be transferred.

So it's very much a case
of the lawyers doing

legal and financial due diligence.

In this case,
it would appear that no-one

was instructed, or failed to do,

proper financial and
legal due diligence.

(Narrator) To prove
he was a serious investor,

Serhat Gumurkcu
sent Gregory Davis

documents showing he had access
to millions of euros.

(Paul) And Mr Gumurkcu produced
a bank comfort letter

saying that Mr Gak's group that,
now, Mr Gumurkcu was part of,

had access to 22.5 million euro.

The documents showed
that Mr Gumurkcu

was hoping to make $400,000

by producing
this bank comfort letter.

That's what his percentage of
the profit would be on the deal

if it went forward.

Mr Davis quickly realised that

this bank comfort letter
was bogus.

(tense music)

(Fiona Moore) this case, Gumurkcu
claimed to have 22 million

in a bank account which was to
be used for this transaction.

And unfortunately, no-one verified
that his claim was authentic

and that he actually
did have this money.

So no financial due diligence
was undertaken.

It was on a bank
called Cyprus First Bank,

which wasn't a real bank.

And it was signed by somebody
who was not a real banker.

So the oil deal that Greg Gak was
trying to put together fell apart.

(Zachary) As a result,
Gregory Davis threatened

to go to the authorities
on numerous occasions

through emails directly
to Mr Gumurkcu,

sometimes which copied
Mr Gak as well.

He was upset because
he was a wannabe entrepreneur.

He had what he thought
was a good deal,

and the deal had fallen apart.

He was hoping to make a lot of
money himself on this oil deal.

And so he had lost
the chance to make money.

Losing the chance to make money
can make somebody unhappy.

And so from relatively early on,

Mr Davis was complaining
about fraud.

(tense music)

(calm music)

(Keri Nixon)
My name is Dr Keri Nixon,

and I'm a consultant
forensic psychologist.

I think Gregory Davis probably
missed the flags of deception.

I also think that he was probably
carried along by his charisma.

I think Gumurkcu was quite
a charismatic individual

who was able to make people
think that they're gonna

be part of something successful.

So he was probably driven
by the need for money,

the desire for financial gain.

(suspenseful music)

(Narrator) Despite his concerns
about financial deception,

Gregory Davis continued his
business relationship

with Serhat Gumurkcu
between 2015 and 2017.

Mr Davis's company
was owed

$200,000, basically,

a debt that was created at
the time of the signing

of those documents
in November of 2015.

But there's also late fees
for Mr Gumurkcu's failure

to provide financing,
which were $75,000 a month.

(suspenseful music)

There was some money paid by
Mr Gumurkcu over that,

basically, two-year time period,

but nowhere near
the amount he was owed.

So in terms of late fees
and that initial payment,

Mr Davis was owed,
I think a little over

$1.5 million by the end of 2017.

(suspenseful music)

(tense music)

(Narrator) Police discovered that
alongside the potential oil deal,

Serhat Gumurkcu's
multimillion-dollar biotech merger

with the Danish billionaires
was about to take off.

In 2017, Mr Gumurkcu decided

to get more involved again

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

at a biotech company,
which was at the forefront

of these potential cures for HIV.

Serhat Gumurkcu was trying to
market his HIV cure with a group

of Danish billionaires

who were convinced

of the marketability and genius

of Serhat Gumurkcu's
medical ideas.

(tense music)

In late 2017, Serhat Gumurkcu
was on the cusp of this

multimillion-dollar biotech deal.

That was the most lucrative
thing that Gumurkcu

had going on at the time.

(tense music)

(Narrator) In 2018,
the body of Gregory Davis

had been found on
an isolated road in Vermont.

His death looked like an execution.

From close to the beginning,
the investigators

suspected that this murder
had something

to do with an oil deal
gone bad between

Mr Davis and Serhat Gumurkcu.

Investigators found
various messages

where Mr Davis was complaining
to Greg Gak about Serhat,

in which he explicitly was saying,
he was going to go to the FBI

and report the fraud.

(suspenseful music)

So right from the beginning
of the investigation,

Serhat was a person of interest.

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.

(calm music)

(Narrator) After the murder
of Gregory Davis,

Serhat Gumurkcu was interviewed by
police at his home in Los Angeles.

The agents just knew that
Serhat had this business deal

gone bad with Greg Davis.

And so they asked him questions
about the business deal gone bad,

and his background,
and those kind of questions.

And Mr Gumurkcu,
let's say, minimised

his involvement in the oil deal.

(suspenseful music)

(Zachary) It quickly became
apparent to investigators

that Serhat Gumurkcu
was not the person

who pulled the trigger
in this case.

And so figuring out
who the players were in this

meant that it was not just
going to be the hitman.

It might be the person who wanted
this to happen in the first place.

When somebody hires
an assassin to kill,

there's definitely a separation.

They're paying that person.
They're arranging it.

And without them,
it wouldn't be happening.

The more steps between yourself
and the ultimate crime...

in this case,
the murder of somebody...

the more separated you are.

So psychologically,
you feel less responsible.

(tense music)

One of the pieces of evidence
along the way that we discovered

was that Serhat Gumurkcu had

transferred
a large amount of money

to Berk Eratay,
who lived in Las Vegas.

And we eventually figured out that
Berk Eratay was a close associate

of Serhat Gumurkcu.

And we were able to uncover,
through investigative work,

that Berk Eratay
withdrew a lot of money

in cash in 2017
that might have been,

or that potentially, was the
source of payments for the hit.

(tense music)

(suspenseful music)

(Narrator) After police spoke with
Serhat Gumurkcu and Berk Eratay,

they began to consider who else
might have been involved.

This investigation
always involved two tracks.

One track was finding out
who the hitman was.

And the second track was figuring
out who hired the hitman.

From early on, we suspected that
the person who hired the hitman

had to have some sort of
relationship with Mr Davis

that caused them to want him dead.

But from the beginning, we needed
to figure out who the hitman was.

And so the second part
of the investigation

was identifying
the identity of the hitman,

and then of course,
his connection to somebody

who might want Greg Davis dead.

(tense music)

(Narrator) As Mr Davis
lived in such a remote area,

investigators started looking
at his cell phone activity

around the time he was
abducted from his home.

(Paul) There was a cell phone
right from the beginning

we suspected was involved in
the hit, which was a cell phone

used right before the murder.

The FBI was able to
determine pretty quickly

that that phone was
purchased at a Walmart

in Clearfield, Pennsylvania.

(tense music)

This was a phone that, we learned,

was purchased in November of 2017.

No phone call was ever
made on this phone.

But the phone was used
for some data.

And that phone was on and
transmitting data from Missouri

on January 4, travelled 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 then soon
after the kidnapping,

that phone was turned off
and never used again.

(tense music)

The other big piece of evidence
that we had from the photographs

and video in Clearfield,
Pennsylvania,

where the phone was purchased,
was this white Ford Explorer

that we believed
the hitman was using to drive.

So we had a phone and a car.

(tense music)

(Narrator) Police focused
their efforts on tracing

the white Ford Explorer.

(Paul) It took us a little while
to get the records

associated with that vehicle.

But when we did get them,
we learned

that a man named Jerry Banks
had possession of the vehicle

at the time of the hit.

(tense music)

(Narrator) Jerry Banks
was a 30-year-old

truck driver and construction
worker who was living in Colorado.

Jerry Banks, who was sort of
down on his luck at the time,

had just recently broken up with
his girlfriend and lost the job.

(Paul) Once we figured out
that Jerry Banks might

be the hitman,
we were able to figure out

that Jerry Banks was close friends
with a man named

Aron Ethridge,
who lived in Las Vegas.

(Zachary) I think Ethridge
was somebody who styled

himself as something of an outlaw.

He was one foot in and one foot
out of a sort of darker world.

He was the person who somebody
could go to to get drugs

or to have a connection
to a world of criminality.

Jerry Banks very much
viewed Aron Ethridge

as a mentor of sorts, somebody
who he aspired to be like.

So in that way, Aron Ethridge
was able to demonstrate...

he had a lot of power over
Mr Banks in terms of influence.

(suspenseful music)

(Narrator) After linking
Jerry Banks to Aron Ethridge,

police made another
crucial discovery.

Berk Eratay also
lived in Las Vegas.

And investigators were
able to determine that Berk Eratay

and Aron Ethridge
were actually neighbours

for a time in Las Vegas.

So the two of them
knew each other.

So this created a chain,
let's call it, from Jerry Banks

to Aron Ethridge.

Aron Ethridge knows Berk Eratay.

Berk Eratay is closely associated
with Serhat Gumurkcu.

(Narrator) With four
potential suspects identified,

police began looking for
evidence of a criminal conspiracy

to murder Gregory Davis.

(Zachary) One particular piece
of evidence that we uncovered

was cryptocurrency transactions
between Aron Ethridge's wallet

and Serhat Gumurkcu's wallet,
which demonstrated a direct link

in terms of financial transactions
between Ethridge and Gumurkcu.

And we learned, during the
course of the investigation,

that it was facilitated
by Berk Eratay.

(tense music)

(Tyler) So between June
and September of 2017,

Gumurkcu wires about $300,000
in cryptocurrency to Eratay.

(calm music)

(Narrator) Police also discovered
that around the time of Gregory

Davis's murder,
Serhat Gumurkcu was involved

in another fraud case
in California.

We learned not only that he was
involved in this potential cure

for HIV and a huge biotech deal,

we also learned that he'd been
charged in California,

and that a California fraud case
was pending against him in 2017.

(calm music)

The heart of the
California fraud case

was a real estate deal in which
it appeared, from the evidence

in California, that
Mr Gumurkcu had ripped off

or defrauded a Turkish investor.

(Zachary) It also involved
Serhat Gumurkcu taking money

from somebody
who wanted to, essentially,

flip a house in California,
creating fake emails,

and pretending to be a lawyer
involved with the case.

And ultimately,
Gumurkcu took that money

and bought a house for himself.

(Paul)
But he was allowed

to plead guilty to a relatively
minor charge in that fraud case

around the same time
as the biotech deal closed

and around the same time
as the murder happened.

(Zachary) So all of that
was part and parcel to this

because the California charges
were at issue when Gumurkcu was

finalising his biotech deal,
which was

ultimately a multimillion-dollar
payday for Serhat Gumurkcu.

(tense music)

(calm music)

(Narrator) Police began to suspect
that Serhat Gumurkcu's motive

for the murder of Gregory Davis
was to prevent

further fraud charges
that could ruin

his multimillion-dollar
biotech deal.

(Paul) There was this link
between Mr Davis' complaints

about Mr Gumurkcu and Mr Gumurkcu
wanting to start this new life

as a biotech genius,

and that this business deal
gone bad

was something that
Mr Gumurkcu wanted to bury,

wanted to be swept under the rug,
didn't want this business deal

and all of its various frauds
and lies over the years

to be something that
haunted him in this new life

that he was trying to create
as a biotech genius.

(suspenseful music)

(Tyler) For Gumurkcu,
Gregory Davis needed to go.

He had all this other stuff
going on in his life,

and Gregory Davis was a liability.

(Narrator) In early 2022,
after four years of investigation,

the criminal conspiracy
started to fall apart

when those involved began to talk.

(Zachary)
FBI and members of the Vermont

State Police travelled
to Nevada in April of 2022.

They interviewed Aron Ethridge.

And Mr Ethridge confessed
to his own involvement

and outlined Serhat Gumurkcu's
involvement

in the murder-for-hire scheme.

And that, among other pieces
of evidence that we eventually

developed, was sufficient for us
to charge Jerry Banks, which

we did in the spring of 2022.

(suspenseful music)

(tense music)

(Narrator) In summer 2022,
police arrested

Serhat Gumurkcu and Berk Eratay
for their part in the plot

to murder Gregory Davis.

(Zachary) He was charged
with three counts...

substantive murder
for hire, as we say.

So that involves the death
of Gregory Davis in that

he hired Jerry Banks to do it.

He was also charged with

conspiracy to commit murder
for hire.

So there was an agreement between
other individuals, specifically

Aron Ethridge, Berk Eratay,
and Jerry Banks,

to cause the death
of Gregory Davis.

All four participants wanted
a crime to take place,

and so they agreed that each
person would play a part in it.

(Narrator) Berk Eratay,
Aron Ethridge, and Jerry Banks

admitted their part in
the murder of Gregory Davis,

while Serhat Gumurkcu pled not
guilty to all charges of murder.

This case came down to
whether or not

Berk Eratay did this on his own

or did it because Serhat Gumurkcu
wanted him to do it.

That's what
this case came down to.

And Mr Gumurkcu went to trial
in March and April of 2025.

(suspenseful music)

(Narrator) The trial took place
in Burlington, Vermont,

where the prosecution faced
a daunting task of condensing

seven years of evidence
for the jury.

(eerie music)

One of the challenges where
you have multiple jurisdictions

is the availability of evidence

and the transparency
of that evidence.

So it is quite challenging to
piece together transactions

that go through
a number of jurisdictions.

(eerie music)

(Paul) One of
the biggest challenges for us

as prosecutors, as investigators,

was how to take
all of this evidence

and make it understandable to
12 regular people in five weeks.

(Narrator) The first
crucial piece of evidence

was Serhat Gumurkcu's
interview in 2018

in which he downplayed his
involvement in the oil deal

with Gregory Davis.

Mr Gumurkcu may even
have admitted on the stand

that he wasn't entirely honest
with the agents in his interview

in April of 2018.

So an important piece of evidence
for us in the case

was the fact that Serhat Gumurkcu
lied to the authorities

about the oil deal in 2018.

(Narrator) Also crucial
to the prosecution's case

was the cooperation
of the others involved.

(Paul)
All three people involved,

the other three defendants,
all implicated Mr Gumurkcu

as the person in charge
in different ways.

Mr Eratay said he was
working for Mr Gumurkcu.

Mr Ethridge said
he was told by Mr Eratay

that they were working
for Mr Gumurkcu.

And even Mr Banks
heard from Mr Ethridge

that they were committing
the murder for the Turkish prince.

And there was only one person
who was posing as a Turkish prince

in this, and that's Mr Gumurkcu.

(eerie music)

(Narrator)
When Berk Eratay took the stand,

he admitted accepting $110,000
from Serhat Gumurkcu to arrange

the hit on Gregory Davis.

There were several
crucial pieces of evidence.

One of them was the testimony
of Berk Eratay.

Eratay was able to offer
significant evidence as to motive.

And he was also able
to provide firsthand account

of Gumurkcu's involvement.

He remembered conversations
with Gumurkcu

about the murder for hire,

and he went to Gumurkcu
each step of the way.

(Tyler) As the details of
this case continued to come out,

it was almost like
you're watching a movie.

The level of planning
that went into this,

from going online and buying
this fake uniform

to look like a US Marshal,

to then going
to the victim's house,

the level of planning that
went on to make this happen,

it got more unbelievable
the more we learned.

(tense music)

(Zachary) Ethridge and Banks
asked for more money

after they determined
that Davis would need

to be separated from his house.

And it was Eratay who went
to Gumurkcu to get that money.

And it was that money
that helped pay

for the fake US Marshal's
clothing,

as well as the vehicle that
Banks ultimately purchased,

the police interceptor vehicle,

that he used to trick Davis

into believing that
he really was under arrest.

(Paul) And Mr Eratay
described at the trial

that Serhat Gumurkcu told him that
he wanted to get rid of Mr Davis

because Mr Davis could disrupt
his life and mess with his future.

And that's what
we argued was the motive.

(suspenseful music)

(Bryanna) What ultimately
led to Davis's death

was that he had
decided he was done,

and he was going to turn the rest

of the group in
to law enforcement.

When they got wind of that,
that was when they decided,

he's gotta go.

And that was what
led to his murder.

(suspenseful music)

Gumurkcu's charisma
was a big part of, I think,

Serhat Gumurkcu convincing
Berk Eratay to participate

in the murder for hire.

Serhat Gumurkcu approached
Berk Eratay,

as the trial testimony
demonstrates,

and essentially said,
you're gonna lose me in your life

if Gregory Davis
goes to the authorities.

And I think that deeply
impacted Berk Eratay,

and that motivated Berk Eratay
to participate in this scheme.

And I think Berk Eratay feared
losing Gumurkcu as his employer,

but also his friend.

(Narrator)
Aron Ethridge told the court

he received $110,000
from Berk Eratay

to help facilitate the murder.

Aron Ethridge also knew
Berk Eratay because

they used to be
next-door neighbours.

And he had also sold drugs
to Serhat Gumurkcu

on several occasions and worked
for Gumurkcu as a bodyguard.

Aron Ethridge is
an emotional person.

His testimony was tear-filled.

It was marked
by emotional outbursts

in that he needed time
to compose himself.

(tense music)

(suspenseful music)

(Narrator) When Jerry Banks
took the stand,

he admitted being paid $100,000
for his role as the hitman.

(Zachary) Jerry Banks was
deeply affected by his actions

in this case, which
he testified about at length.

And his testimony was alarming.

His testimony was sobering.

He remembered in great detail
Mr Davis's kidnapping.

He testified about
a conversation that he had

while he was driving
Mr Davis after

he had placed Mr Davis
under arrest.

Jerry Banks testified that,
at one point,

Gregory Davis asked Jerry Banks
if Jerry Banks believed in God.

Jerry Banks said no.

And it was just moments after that
that Jerry banks pulled his car

to the side of the road and
ultimately shot Gregory Davis

more than a dozen times
in the back.

(tense music)

(eerie music)

(Paul) Those are
powerful pieces of evidence,

even though they don't
necessarily prove that

Serhat Gumurkcu hired everybody.

But trials are about many things.

And what we tried to do
is put together a trial

that was persuasive overall.

(Bryanna) Gumurkcu fashioned
himself like a CEO.

He was the executor of this
organised fraud

where he was at the centre,

but just like the old
organised crime mafia schemes,

where you had the
centre spoke that really

didn't touch anything themselves,
meaning they felt more protected.

(Narrator) During the trial,
Serhat Gumurkcu's entire background

was revealed to be
an elaborate fraud.

(Zachary) Serhat Gumurkcu
was essentially able

to convince people
to believe in him.

He was willing to go to great
lengths to appear to be a doctor.

Serhat Gumurkcu purchased degrees
from a real Russian institution.

Serhat Gumurkcu
did not earn those degrees,

but he had physical documents

in his name that said
he was a doctor.

He was willing to go
the extra mile to appear

to be what he said he was.

And I think that was a hallmark of

his fraud
in his business dealings,

in his professional life
as a healer,

and ultimately, what caused him
to need Greg Davis to be killed,

which was that he purported to
be somebody with access to a lot

of money and able to facilitate
an oil transaction,

when I think the evidence
made clear

that he never had that money,

and he never intended
to pay for any oil.

Everything we need to know about
this man

is the level of deception

that he's willing to go to.

He was willing to lie
that he was a medical doctor

and present himself
not only as a doctor,

but a doctor
that could treat cancer.

He loved the admiration.

This is the kind of person that
we'll see rush into a situation

that they haven't got
the knowledge to do

because they admire
that admiration.

(Narrator)
Towards the end of the trial,

Serhat Gumurkcu took the stand.

His defence was essentially,
I lied about a lot

of different things in my life.

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 of Gregory Davis.

And I thought
Assistant US attorney

Van de Graaf's cross-examination

was incredibly
well done, masterful.

(tense music)

(Paul) So I had
an exhibit that I found,

which was his interview in 2006
with a Turkish magazine.

And so in the article,
one of the things he says is that,

you know, I have the power
with my mind

to break up people's
kidney stones.

(tense music)

And so I decided to cross-examine
him about this statement.

(tense music)

One of the things I said,
do you still believe

you can break people's
kidney stones with your mind?

Because I thought there was no
good answer he could give to that.

He said, only my own.

(tense music)

Maybe that says everything about
Serhat. I don't know.

He's saying, yeah, I lied about
breaking other people's

kidney stones,
but I still think I can

break my own kidney stone
with my mind.

He's the ultimate con man.

Everything about him is a lie.

I think Mr Gumurkcu
rationalises his offending

in that he thinks that
he is superior and special,

and that I think there's part
of him that actually believes

his own lies,
which is something that

we see in this level of deceptor.

And he thinks he's superior
to all those people.

So they're deserving, almost,
of his manipulation.

They're just pawns to be used.

(Narrator) In April 2025,
Serhat Gumurkcu

was found guilty of arranging
the murder of Gregory Davis

and now faces a mandatory
life sentence.

His three co-conspirators
were sentenced

to between 8 and 16 years.

(calm music)

(Bryanna) This case involving
Serhat Gumurkcu is very complex.

But ultimately,
it boils down to a few things.

He was this very "successful"
con man in that he had been

able to defraud
numerous people across

multiple countries and continents.

By the time he got to Davis,
unfortunately,

he had been conning people

so often that
he had this invincibility air.

He thought, there's no chance
I'm gonna get caught.

But thankfully,
his entire network was exposed.

(Tyler)
At the end of the day,

a soured business deal
destroyed countless lives.

I mean, this took a father,
a husband, damaged a community.

Not only that, but all of those
involved in targeting him

have lost their lives in some way.

So business, money...

Was it worth it?

(Zachary)
When Gregory Davis's life

was stolen by Jerry Banks,
his wife was pregnant

with their seventh child.

And his seventh child
never even had the chance

to... to meet her father.

So it was incredibly tragic case.

Ms Davis became a single mother
of seven kids.

And it was just senseless.

It's not every day
in the United States

that somebody pretends to be
a sworn member of law enforcement,

kidnaps somebody,
and then executes them.

It's one I hope
I don't encounter again.

I'd never had a case
quite like this before.

You know, there were
times when I worried

that we'd never solve this case.

As a federal prosecutor,
you're handling people's lives.

They're very significant things.

And I've had many cases
that stick with me

and have stuck with me
over the years.

But certainly, this trial,
finding justice for Melissa Davis,

it'll never leave me.

(theme music)

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