Murder for Hire | Fatal Fraud | Forensic Files

[audio logo] 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. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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.
[music playing] 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. TYLER DUMONT: Authority 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 DUMONT: My name is Tyler Dumont.
I was a general assignment reporter for 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. NARRATOR: The victim was later identified
as 49-year-old Gregory Davis. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: Gregory Davis was a religious man,
married to Melissa Davis. They raised a large family. 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 DUMONT: Gregory Davis lived in a really
quiet neighborhood. It is the type of place where people are close. They leave their doors unlocked.
They feel safe. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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 VAN DE GRAAF: 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. NARRATOR: The police were puzzled as to why a seemingly ordinary family man would be killed
in a mafia style execution. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: Mr. Davis's body had handcuffs behind his back and over 12 bullets
in his body and head. TYLER DUMONT: 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. They also told us that the US attorney's office was involved.
That, to me, was unusual. NARRATOR: From the start of the investigation, police realized they would need the help of multiple agencies
to help trace the killer. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: From early on, we believed that the hitman had come from outside Vermont.
TYLER DUMONT: 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. We're talking hours to get anywhere by car.
So this was something that was strategic and planned to execute. NARRATOR: When police interviewed
Gregory Davis's wife, Melissa, she revealed a shocking detail. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: So on January 6, around 9 o'clock
at night, a man dressed as a US marshal arrived in a white Ford Explorer and knocked on the Davis's door.
He presented himself as a marshal, saying he has an 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 VAN DE GRAAF: 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. ZACHARY STENDIG: 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.
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. - 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 behavior when it comes to these types of crimes. There are the more disorganized, 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 T.
PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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. NARRATOR: In Danville, Virginia, the FBI and state police have begun looking at Gregory Davis's records
to try and discover exactly who he had been involved with. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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? - Law enforcement quickly went into Mr. Davis's email.
They went through his text messages and other electronic communications, and they found numerous messages involving
a man named Gregory Gac. Mr. Gac 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 Gac were involved in a lucrative oil transaction.
- Gregory Gac, we learned early on was a middleman in that oil deal. And so relatively early on, we spoke
with Mr. Gac, who began cooperating in January of 2018. NARRATOR: Gregory Gac told police
the multimillion dollar deal was being brokered by Gregory Davis for a wealthy California
based Turkish businessman named Serhat Gumrukcu. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: From a very early stage,
Serhat Gumrukcu was a person of interest. - A scientist and a healer, he was also an incredibly
charismatic person. He purported to be somebody with access to a lot of money. NARRATOR: 39-year-old Serhat Gumrukcu was
a wealthy Turkish entrepreneur who arrived in California in 2013. Gumrukcu had business interests including
real estate, pharmaceuticals, and oil trading. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: Mr. Gumrukcu was 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,
Gumrukcu styled himself as an entrepreneur and member of the Turkish elite. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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. NARRATOR: Gumrukcu's interest in magic brought him into contact with fellow magician and
Turkish businessman, Berk Eratay. ZACHARY STENDIG: In terms of Serhat's background,
I think Berk Eratay was really a crucial. Berk Eratay had originally met Serhat Gumrukcu in Turkey.
They bonded over both being magicians and working in that-- in that field, and they both traveled from Turkey to the United States
together, where their relationship continued. NARRATOR: Between 2013 and 2015, Serhat Gumrukcu and Berk Eratay pursued a number of business
interests in California. BRYANNA FOX: After Gumrukcu 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 hugely profitable. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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 Gumrukcu's talents
attracted international investment, including funding from a group of Danish billionaires
for a new biotech venture. SERHAT GUMRUKCU: 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--
than the other scientists to-- to be able to find things that they weren't able to find so far.
NARRATOR: While Serhat Gumrukcu was very much the driving force of these business ventures, Berk Eratay was
always on hand for support. ZACHARY STENDIG: I think Eratay's relationship with Serhat Gumrukcu as an associate, but also
as a close personal friend. Eratay had a lot to gain if Serhat Gumrukcu was successful,
and that Eratay could sort of ride Gumrukcu's coattails for years, so to speak. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: So one of the things
about Serhat Gumrukcu 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 center of his relationship with Gregory Davis. NARRATOR: Police had discovered that in 2015, Gregory Davis had
been approached by Gregory Gac to broker a multimillion dollar oil deal for Serhat Gumrukcu.
PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: So the initial oil deal involving Mr. Gumrukcu and Mr. Davis was put together by Mr. Gac.
Mr. Davis was involved with a group of people that had oil to sell. And Mr. Gac 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. Gumrukcu had access to the funds to purchase the oil. FIONA HOTSTON MOORE: My name is Fiona Hotston Moore,
and I'm a forensic accountant and expert witness. 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 Gumrukcu sent Gregory Davis documents, showing he had
access to millions of euros. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: And Mr. Gumrukcu produced a bank comfort letter saying that Mr. Gac's group
that now Mr. Gumrukcu was part of had access to 22.5 million euro. The documents showed that Mr. Gumrukcu 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 realized that this bank comfort letter was bogus.
FIONA HOTSTON MOORE: In this case, Gumrukcu 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, 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 Gac was trying to put together
fell apart. ZACHARY STENDIG: As a result, Gregory Davis threatened to go to the authorities
on numerous occasions through emails directly to Mr. Gumrukcu sometimes which copied Mr. Gac as well.
PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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. 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 Gumrukcu was quite a charismatic individual who
was able to make people think that they're going to be part of something successful.
So he was probably driven by the need for money, the desire for financial gain. NARRATOR: Despite his concerns about financial deception,
Gregory Davis continued his business relationship with Serhat Gumrukcu 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.
Gumrukcu's failure to provide financing, which were $75,000 a month. There was some money paid by Mr. Gumrukcu
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 a million and a half dollars by the end of 2017. NARRATOR: Police discovered that
alongside the potential oil deal, Serhat Gumrukcu's multimillion dollar biotech merger with the Danish billionaires
was about to take off. - In 2017, Mr. Gumrukcu 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 Gumrukcu was trying to market his HIV cure with a group of Danish billionaires
who were convinced of the marketability and genius of Serhat Gumrukcu's medical ideas.
ZACHARY STENDIG: In late 2017, Serhat Gumrukcu was on the cusp of this multimillion
dollar biotech deal. That was the most lucrative thing that Gumrukcu had going on at the time.
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 Gumrukcu. Investigators found various messages where Mr. Davis was complaining to Greg Gac about Serhat
in which he explicitly was saying he was going to go to the FBI and report that fraud.
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.
NARRATOR: After the murder of Gregory Davis, Serhat Gumrukcu 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. Gumrukcu let's say, minimized his involvement
in the oil deal. ZACHARY STENDIG: It quickly became apparent to investigators that Serhat Gumrukcu
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. - One of the pieces of evidence along the way that we
discovered was that Serhat Gumrukcu 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 Gumrukcu.
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.
[crisp shuffle of money] NARRATOR: After police spoke with Serhat Gumrukcu and Berk Eratay, they began to consider who
else might have been involved. - This investigation was 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. 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 VAN DE GRAAF: 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. 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, traveled
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. 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.
NARRATOR: Police focused their efforts on tracing the white Ford Explorer. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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.
NARRATOR: Jerry Banks was a 30-year-old truck driver and construction worker who was living in Colorado.
ZACHARY STENDIG: Jerry Banks, who was sort of down on his luck at the time, had just recently broken up with his girlfriend
and lost a job. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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 Aaron Ethridge, who
lived in Las Vegas. ZACHARY STENDIG: 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 sort of person who somebody could go to,
to get drugs or to have a connection to a world of criminality. Jerry Banks very much viewed Aaron Ethridge
as a mentor of sorts, somebody who he aspired to be like. So in that way, Aaron Ethridge was able to demonstrate--
he had a lot of power over Mr. Banks in terms of influence. NARRATOR: After linking Jerry Banks to Aaron Ethridge,
police made another crucial discovery. - Berk Eratay also lived in Las Vegas, and investigators were able to determine that Berk Eratay and
Aaron Ethridge were actually neighbors 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 Aaron Ethridge. Aaron Ethridge knows Berk Eratay,
Berk Eratay is closely associated with Serhat Gumrukcu. NARRATOR: With four potential suspects identified,
police began looking for evidence of a criminal conspiracy to murder Gregory Davis.
ZACHARY STENDIG: One particular piece of evidence that we uncovered was cryptocurrency transactions
between Aaron Ethridge's wallet and Serhat Gumrukcu's wallet, which demonstrated a direct link
in terms of financial transactions between Ethridge and Gumrukcu. And we learned during the course of the investigation
that it was facilitated by Berk Eratay. So between June and September of 2017, Gumrukcu wires about $300,000 in cryptocurrency to Eratay.
NARRATOR: Police also discovered that around the time of Gregory Davis's murder,
Serhat Gumrukcu 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. The heart of the California fraud case
was a real estate deal, in which it appeared from the evidence in California that Mr. Gumrukcu had ripped off or
defrauded a Turkish investor. ZACHARY STENDIG: It also involved Serhat Gumrukcu 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, Gumrukcu, he took that money and bought a house for himself. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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 STENDIG: So all of that was part and parcel to this,
because the California charges were at issue when Gumrukcu was finalizing his biotech deal, which
was ultimately a multimillion dollar payday for Serhat Gumrukcu. NARRATOR: Police began to suspect
that Serhat Gumrukcu's motive for the murder of Gregory Davis was to prevent further fraud charges
that could ruin his multimillion dollar biotech deal. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: There was this link
between Mr. Davis's complaints about Mr. Gumrukcu and Mr. Gumrukcu wanting to start this new life
as a biotech genius. And that this business deal gone bad was something that Mr. Gumrukcu 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. TYLER DUMONT: For Gumrukcu, 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 STENDIG: FBI and members of the Vermont State Police traveled
to Nevada in April of 2022. They interviewed Aaron Ethridge, and Mr. Ethridge confessed to his own involvement
and outlined Serhat Gumrukcu'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.
NARRATOR: In summer 2022, police arrested Serhat Gumrukcu and Berk Eratay for their part in the plot to murder Gregory Davis.
ZACHARY STENDIG: He was charged with three counts, substantive murder for hire, as we say,
so that involves the death of Gregory Davis and 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 Aaron 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, Aaron Ethridge, and Jerry Banks admitted their part in the murder of Gregory Davis,
while Serhat Gumrukcu 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 Gumrukcu wanted him to do it.
That's what this case came down to. And Mr. Gumrukcu went to trial in March and April of 2025.
NARRATOR: The trial took place in Burlington, Vermont, where the prosecution faced a daunting task
of condensing seven years of evidence for the jury. - 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. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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 Gumrukcu's interview in 2018,
in which he downplayed his involvement in the oil deal with Gregory Davis. - Mr. Gumrukcu may even have admitted on the stand
that he wasn't entirely honest with the agents in his interview in April of 2018.
So what an important piece of evidence for us in the case was the fact that Serhat Gumrukcu
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 VAN DE GRAAF: All three people
involved, the other three defendants all implicated Mr. Gumrukcu as the person in charge
in different ways. Mr. Eratay said he was working for Mr. Gumrukcu. Mr. Ethridge said he was told by Mr. Eratay
that they were working for Mr. Gumrukcu. 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 a--
posing as a Turkish prince in this, and that's Mr. Gumrukcu. NARRATOR: When Berk Eratay took the stand,
he admitted accepting $110,000 from Serhat Gumrukcu 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 Gumrukcu's involvement. He remembered conversations with Gumrukcu
about the murder for hire, and he went to Gumrukcu each step of the way. TYLER DUMONT: 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. ZACHARY STENDIG: 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 Gumrukcu to get that money.
And it was that money that helped pay for the fake US marshals 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 VAN DE GRAAF: And Mr. Eratay described at the trial
that Serhat Gumrukcu 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. BRYANNA FOX: But 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 got to go.
And that was what led to his murder. ZACHARY STENDIG: Gumrukcu's charisma was a big part of, I think, Serhat Gumrukcu
convincing Berk Eratay to participate in the murder for hire. Serhat Gumrukcu approached Berk Eratay,
as the trial testimony demonstrates, and essentially said, you're going to 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
Gumrukcu as his employer, but also his friend. NARRATOR: Aaron Ethridge told the court he
received $110,000 from Berk Eratay to help facilitate the murder. - Aaron Ethridge also knew Berk Eratay
because they used to be next door neighbors, and he had also sold drugs to Serhat Gumrukcu
on several occasions and worked for Gumrukcu as a bodyguard. Aaron Ethridge is an emotional person.
His testimony was tear-filled. It was marked by emotional outbursts in that he needed
time to compose himself. NARRATOR: When Jerry Banks took the stand, he admitted being paid $100,000 for his role as the hitman.
- 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. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: Those are powerful pieces of evidence,
even though they don't necessarily prove that Serhat Gumrukcu hired everybody. But trials are about many things, and what we try to do
is put together a trial that was persuasive overall. BRYANNA FOX: Gumrukcu fashioned himself like a CEO.
He was the executor of this organized fraud where he was at the center. But just like the old organized crime
mafia schemes where you had the center spoke that really didn't touch anything themselves, meaning they felt more protected.
NARRATOR: During the trials, Serhat Gumrukcu's entire background was revealed to be an elaborate fraud.
ZACHARY STENDIG: Serhat Gumrukcu was essentially able to convince people to believe in him.
He's willing to go to great lengths to appear to be a doctor. Serhat Gumrukcu's purchased degrees
from a real Russian institution. Serhat Gumrukcu 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 Gumrukcu took the stand. - His defense 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. PAUL VAN DE GRAAF: 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 I have the power with my mind to break
up people's kidney stones. And so I decided to cross-examine him about this statement.
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.
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. Gumrukcu rationalizes 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 Gumrukcu 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. [somber music] BRYANNA FOX: This case involving Serhat Gumrukcu
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 going to get caught.
But thankfully, his entire network was exposed. - 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 STENDIG: 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 an 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. No, there were times when I worried that we'd
never solve this case. As a federal prosecutor, you're handling people's lives. There are 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.
[somber music] [music playing]

When Vermont father Gregory Davis is abducted by a man posing as a federal marshal, the trail leads back to a glamorous fraudster.

This true crime series delves into cases where financial schemes spiral into betrayal, violence and murder, exposing the deadly cost of lies fueled by greed.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the murder of Gregory Davis linked to a fraudulent oil deal and the subsequent investigation and trial of Serhat Gumrukcu.

Key points

The Murder of Gregory Davis. Gregory Davis, a family man, was found murdered in a shocking crime that puzzled investigators.
The Bogus US Marshal. A man posing as a US marshal abducted Gregory Davis before his murder, raising questions about the case.
Serhat Gumrukcu's Charisma. Serhat Gumrukcu, a charismatic entrepreneur, was deeply involved in a multimillion dollar oil deal with Gregory Davis.
The Murder Conspiracy Unraveled. Police traced a web of connections leading to the murder of Gregory Davis.
Cryptocurrency Links to Murder. Investigators uncovered financial transactions linking suspects to the murder plot.
Trial of Serhat Gumrukcu. Gumrukcu faced trial for orchestrating the murder, claiming innocence despite evidence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Losing the chance to make money can make somebody unhappy.

PAUL VAN DE GRAAF reflects on the impact of financial loss.

0:32WatchFeb 20, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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