Serhat Gumrukcu, a 42-year-old biomedical researcher from Los Angeles, has been convicted for orchestrating the 2018 murder of Gregory Davis, a Vermont businessman. Gumrukcu, who had claimed to have discovered a cure for HIV, was found guilty of wire fraud and murder-for-hire. Prosecutors revealed that Gumrukcu hired Jerry Banks to abduct and kill Davis after Davis threatened legal action over a failed oil commodities deal involving Gumrukcu. Banks posed as a U.S. Marshal to abduct Davis from his Danville home on January 6, 2018; Davis’s body was found the next day in a nearby snowbank. Investigators traced the crime back to Gumrukcu through financial records and communications. Gumrukcu faces a mandatory life sentence.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig L. Tremaroli stated, “Serhat Gumrukcu is a ruthless criminal whose greed drove him to order the death of his own business partner. Today, our thoughts are with Gregory Davis’s family.”
The case was investigated by the FBI and Vermont State Police, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul J. Van de Graaf and Zachary Stendig prosecuting.
For more details, refer to the U.S. Department of Justice press release.
