An article today by Benjamin Harvey at Bloomberg News reports that a Turkish official said that Tevfik Arif, the chairman of Bayrock Group LLC, a partner with the Trump Organization and the Sapir Organization in the development of Trump Soho Hotel, "is being questioned by Turkish police as a suspected organizer of an international ring of high-price prostitutes, after he was arrested this week in a helicopter raid on a luxury yacht."
The article said that according to Mahmut Deniz, head of press and public relations at the Antalya governor's office, Mr. Arif, "who is of Kazakh origin, is being held at police headquarters in Belek, near the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, and questioned in relation to the prostitution scandal," adding that "there's been no decision on whether to press charges."
The article said that Mr. Arif's lawyer, Engin Agyuzlu, said that he "is the victim of a 'smear campaign' and will 'vigorously defend himself in any court of law.'"
Mr. Deniz said Mr. Arif and nine other people are being held in connection with running the prostitution ring and added that "10 Russian and Ukrainian women suspected of prostitution were also detained in the operation, and one was later released," the article said, adding that "Two of those women were younger than the minimum age of 18 for legal sexual consent in Turkey."
Richard Rubenstein of Rubenstein Public Relations, a spokesman for Bayrock, couldn't provide immediate information on the issue, and Rhona Graff, a spokeswoman for Trump, declined to comment and Alex Sapir, president of the Sapir organization, the third member of the Trump SoHo Partnership alongside Trump and Bayrock, couldn't immediately be contacted, the article said.
The Istanbul-based Hurriyet newspaper, citing unidentified local prosecutors, reported that "Russian, Kyrgyz and Kazakh businessmen and high-level government officials were also among those detained in the raid on the Savarona, a 136-meter (446-foot) yacht used by Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk before he died in 1938," according to the article.
The newspaper said that the businessmen "paid $3,000 to $10,000 per night to sleep with Russian and Ukrainian women obtained through modeling agencies."
The Bloomberg News article said that "Arif, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Trade and Economics, worked for 17 years at the Soviet Ministry of Commerce and Trade, where he served as deputy head of the hotel management department, according to a profile published in Real Estate Weekly in September 2007. After moving to the U.S., his first property deal was buying and redeveloping a 280,000 square-foot waterfront shopping center in Brooklyn, and he has investments in Miami, Switzerland and France, it said. Hurriyet said he's a Turkish citizen."
The article said that "The Savarona, built by German shipyard Blohm & Voss AG, is the longest yacht in the world available for charter, according to Power and Motoryacht magazine. In 1989, Turkish businessman Kahraman Sadikoglu paid $60 million to the Finance Ministry for the rights to operate the Savarona for 49 years. He told reporters this week he charges $30,000 to $40,000 a day for its use to help cover yearly upkeep costs of some $3 million."
The article said that according to Mahmut Deniz, head of press and public relations at the Antalya governor's office, Mr. Arif, "who is of Kazakh origin, is being held at police headquarters in Belek, near the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, and questioned in relation to the prostitution scandal," adding that "there's been no decision on whether to press charges."
The article said that Mr. Arif's lawyer, Engin Agyuzlu, said that he "is the victim of a 'smear campaign' and will 'vigorously defend himself in any court of law.'"
Mr. Deniz said Mr. Arif and nine other people are being held in connection with running the prostitution ring and added that "10 Russian and Ukrainian women suspected of prostitution were also detained in the operation, and one was later released," the article said, adding that "Two of those women were younger than the minimum age of 18 for legal sexual consent in Turkey."
Richard Rubenstein of Rubenstein Public Relations, a spokesman for Bayrock, couldn't provide immediate information on the issue, and Rhona Graff, a spokeswoman for Trump, declined to comment and Alex Sapir, president of the Sapir organization, the third member of the Trump SoHo Partnership alongside Trump and Bayrock, couldn't immediately be contacted, the article said.
The Istanbul-based Hurriyet newspaper, citing unidentified local prosecutors, reported that "Russian, Kyrgyz and Kazakh businessmen and high-level government officials were also among those detained in the raid on the Savarona, a 136-meter (446-foot) yacht used by Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk before he died in 1938," according to the article.
The newspaper said that the businessmen "paid $3,000 to $10,000 per night to sleep with Russian and Ukrainian women obtained through modeling agencies."
The Bloomberg News article said that "Arif, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Trade and Economics, worked for 17 years at the Soviet Ministry of Commerce and Trade, where he served as deputy head of the hotel management department, according to a profile published in Real Estate Weekly in September 2007. After moving to the U.S., his first property deal was buying and redeveloping a 280,000 square-foot waterfront shopping center in Brooklyn, and he has investments in Miami, Switzerland and France, it said. Hurriyet said he's a Turkish citizen."
The article said that "The Savarona, built by German shipyard Blohm & Voss AG, is the longest yacht in the world available for charter, according to Power and Motoryacht magazine. In 1989, Turkish businessman Kahraman Sadikoglu paid $60 million to the Finance Ministry for the rights to operate the Savarona for 49 years. He told reporters this week he charges $30,000 to $40,000 a day for its use to help cover yearly upkeep costs of some $3 million."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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