A lawyer fleeced a millionaire out of £2million to blow in top casinos, a court heard today.
Harvard-educated Tim Damiani, 69, persuaded Aysun Kibar to invest £1.5million in a luxury home she had never even seen in Mayfair, jurors heard.
But when she asked for her money back he told her he had no idea what she was talking about.
Ms Kibar’s family own the Turkish export company Kibar Holdings where she is on the board of directors.
Ms Kibar and Damiani’s wife were close childhood friends who met when they were 13 and grew up together in Turkey.
Prosecutor Sophie Stannard told Southwark Crown Court: ‘She comes from Turkey and was born into a very affluent family.
‘She is able to travel the world, to different parts of Europe frequently and she has shares in her family’s business.
‘She has an annual income of 300,000 US dollars [£255,000] per year.
‘Even though she lives this quite cosmopolitan lifestyle she has been brought up in Turkey and resonates with the country’s values.
‘Her wealth is the sort of wealth that if you ask someone to do something for you it is done.
‘As Ms Kibar understood it, the defendant came from an affluent family and he was very well connected.
‘He was a lawyer and went to Harvard. Ms Kibar visited Mr Damiani and his wife in Milan and Switzerland and Cambridge and as far as she was concerned they were her good friends and she had no reason not to trust them. If you beloved this article and you would like to receive far more info with regards to istanbul Lawyer Law Firm kindly pay a visit to the internet site. ‘
During the visit to Cambridge in 2016 she told Damiani she was considering obtaining UK residency due to the unrest in Turkey at the time.
Damiani told Ms Kibar he had ‘plenty of experience’ in making applications for British residency and he would help her.
He told her he could get her a discounted fee of £300,000 and would sort out British passports for herself and her two children.
Ms Kibar made three separate payments of £75,000, £80,000 and £150,000 to Damiani’s bank account, between April and June 2016.
The extra £5,000 was paid after Damiani encouraged her to set up a trust so she could make property investments in a ‘tax efficient way’.
She flew out with her family to Cannes with Damiani and his wife where they all dined together on July 21, 2016, the court heard.
Ms Kibar again expressed her worries about the unrest in Turkey and Damiani suggested her family should apply for Italian passports, saying a friend called ‘Giuseppe’ could help.
Damiani sent a WhatsApp message to Ms Kibar on September 8, 2016 that read: ‘Things will be ready tomorrow spoke to my friends in Rome they asked me about the rest of the family.
‘I said too expensive.They said they can do everything for £80,000, for £40,000 they can’t do more than 10 people.’
The prosecutor said: ‘In essence the Crown says the defendant was saying he had spoken to connections in Rome and as long as they were dealing with at least 10 people they could deal with the whole application for £40,000.’
She also discussed investing in properties and Damiani told her of an ‘amazing opportunity’ for her, the court heard.
‘He had an exceptional property that an Arab man was selling and said they could invest in it together,’ Ms Stannard said.
‘The owner was an important man who needed to sell the property quickly because the relationship had broken down with his mistress.
‘He could get the property for less due to the need for selling quickly.
‘When they met, the defendant showed her the property on [28] Charles Street in Mayfair,’ said Ms Stannard.
‘Due to an internal inspection he said they couldn’t view property just yet, it was a very delicate issue due to the mistress, however he had all matters in hand.’
Damiani convinced Ms Kibar to invest £1.5million into the property – now valued at £12.6million – and Ms Kibar subsequently transferred the money to Damiani’s account on 29 September 2016.
Ms Stannard told jurors ‘a few weeks went by and Ms Kibar became concerned that she had heard nothing more about the passport or completion of property.’
‘Ms Damiani did her own research and realised the property was worth way more than said and discovered the property was linked to Mr Damiani’s brother.’
On 11 November Ms Kibar emailed Damiani asked him to return her money and asked for it to be transferred to her Turkish bank account.
Damiani told Ms Kibar she would have her money in 2-3 days, the court heard.
‘Unsurprisingly she didn’t have her money in 3 days,’ Ms Stannard said.
After months of messaging Damiani with no response Ms Kibar’s bank wrote to the lawyer on 25 January 2017 asking where her money was.
‘Mr Damiani replied saying he didn’t know what Ms Kibar was talking about, how she owed him money and he was no longer a British resident,’ Ms Stannard said.
‘Mr Damiani has squandered away Ms Kibar’s money, Mr Damiani had dissipated Kibar’s money and spent just shy of half a million in casinos, gave £76,500 to his children and not a single penny returned to Ms Kibar.’
Damiani, of Muswell Hill, north London, denies three counts of fraud.
He was extradited from Italy in 2020 following a request from the UK government.
The trial continues.
The Turkish biotech tycoon charged with plotting the murder of a father shot dead in 2018 is a former teenage magician who allegedly faked his own medical degree to dupe US healthcare executives, including Dr..
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 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
‘I was supposed to meet with them but I am swamped with the coronavirus,’ he told a staff member in the email dated February 2, 2020.
It’s unclear how he raised funding for Enochian, or whether or not any of its treatments are in use. When you have just about any inquiries relating to where as well as the way to use Lawyer Law Firm Turkey, you possibly can e mail us on our own web-site.
Federal prosecutors say Gumrukcu and his brother – who has not been in the US for years and who lives in Turkey – were ‘the only people who appeared to have a serious dispute with Davis or any motive for Davis’s execution.’
In 2017, Davis was threatening them about ‘going to the FBI with evidence’ that the were ‘defrauding him’ in a multi-million dollar oil deal.
The deal was struck in 2015 and it’s unclear what the details are, but prosecutors say the Turkish brothers ‘failed to perform on the deal and made various claims about their attempts to perform’.
Murder for hire: In 2018, Greg Davis was murdered in Vermont after being collected from his home by a man posing as a US Marshal.His body was found the next day in a snowy bank next to his house
Davis was in a dispute with the Turkish scientist and planned to report him to the FBI when he was suddenly murdered, according to prosecutors
‘Davis believed that the Gumrukcu’s lied to him about various matters. During that same time, Serhat Gumrukcu was facing felony fraud charges in California state court.’
At the same time, he was in the midst of obtaining a majority stake in Enochian. The indictment alleges that any complications surrounding the oil deal would have jeopardized him obtaining a majority stake in Enochian.
Banks, the hitman who is charged with posing as the US Marshal, is friends with Aron Ethridge, a friend of Berk Eratay who worked for Gumrukcu.
Ethridge has confessed his role in the plot and is expected to testify against the three other men. He said he was hired by Eratay and Gumrukcu to ‘find someone to ‘murder Davis and that he enlisted Banks to kill Davis.’
Between June and October 2017, bank records reveal Gumrukcu sent Eratay $150,000.Eratay withdrew the cash ‘in increments of $9,000 – $1,000 below the $10,000 currency reporting requirement.’
The proffer claims he has a ‘documented history’ of fraud that includes him being arrested and charged in 2017 with felony fraud.
Gumrukcu defrauded a Turkish investor out of almost $1million in a real estate investment.He told the investor that he was spending the funds on purchasing and renovating a Los Angeles home, when in fact he was spending the money on other matters.
‘Gumrukcu also provided the investor with bogus documents, supposedly prepared by an attorney.The other alleged fraud scheme in the state case involved bounced checks connected to his dealings with Davis’.
The proffer also says he pleaded guilty in January 2019 to one count of felony fraud, then modified it into a misdemeanor – something that is possible under California istanbul Lawyer Law Firm.
The 39-year-old poses with F1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone, left, and Count Gaddo Cardini of Italy
Gumrukcu with Dame Helen Mirren in another photo from his Instagram feed.He is facing life in prison for conspiracy to commit murder
Gumrukcu with Boy George and film producer Cindy Cowan in a 2017 photo from his Facebook
Charmed life: Prosecutors said Gumrukcu is a huge flight risk given his money and foreign ties
The 39-year-old’s $5million home in Hollywood, where he was living with his husband
The documents also claim he was arrested in Turkey in 2012 for fraud, but fled the country while the case was pending.
‘He has remained outside Turkey since then, avoiding that prosecution.’
‘In 2020, he successfully sought to dismiss the Turkish case from outside the country.In spite of his failure, he chose not to return to face the charges’.
Prosecutors, in their case against bail, said he was a clear flight risk.
Enochian’s share price has plummeted since news of the founder’s arrest
Gumrukcu’s attorney maintains that he is innocent.He is in custody pending his next court appearance
‘Common sense suggests that Gumrukcu would hide or flee rather than spend the rest of his life in jail or face the death penalty. Put simply, a wealthy citizen of a foreign country charged with murder should be detained pending trial,’ they argued.
The judge agreed and Lawyer Law Firm Turkey held him in custody pending his next court date.
Enochian has tried to distance itself from him since his arrest.
In a letter to shareholders earlier this month, CEO Mark Dybul tried to assuage fears by claiming the allegations were a ‘smear campaign’ launched by short-sellers trying to profit from the company’s woes.
Shares of Enochian fell from $5.88 to $3.76 after news of Gumrukcu’s arrest broke. Gumrukcu has been held in custody pending his next court date.
Kherson celebrates Russian exit yet faces huge rebuilding
KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) – Residents of Kherson celebrated the end of Russia´s eight-month occupation for the third straight day Sunday, even as they took stock of the extensive damage left behind in the southern Ukrainian city by the Kremlin´s retreating forces.
A jubilant crowd gathered in Kherson´s main square, despite the distant thumps of artillery fire that could be heard as Ukrainian forces pressed on with their effort to push out Moscow´s invasion force.
“It´s a new year for us now,” said Karina Zaikina, 24, who wore on her coat a yellow-and-blue ribbon in Ukraine´s national colors.”For the first time in many months, I wasn´t scared to come into the city.”
“Finally, freedom!” said 61-year-old resident Tetiana Hitina. “The city was dead.”
But even as locals rejoiced, the evidence of Russia´s ruthless occupation was all around, and Law Firm istanbul Russian forces still control some 70% of the wider Kherson region.
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Bomb rocks avenue in heart of Istanbul; 6 dead, dozens hurt
ISTANBUL (AP) – A bomb rocked a bustling pedestrian avenue in the heart of Istanbul on Sunday, killing six people, wounding several dozen and leaving panicked people to flee the fiery blast or huddle in cafes and shops.
Emergency vehicles rushed to the scene on Istiklal Avenue, a popular thoroughfare lined with shops and restaurants that leads to the iconic Taksim Square.In one video posted online, a loud bang could be heard and a flash seen as pedestrians turned and ran away.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the blast a “treacherous attack” and said its perpetrators would be punished.If you loved this information and you wish to receive more details about Turkish Law Firm generously visit our own web page. He did not say who was behind the attack but said it had the “smell of terror” without offering details and also adding that was not certain yet.
Sunday´s explosion was a shocking reminder of the anxiety and safety concerns that stalked the Turkish population during years when such attacks were common. The country was hit by a string of deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017, some by the Islamic State group, others by Kurdish militants who seek increased autonomy or independence.
In recent years, Erdogan has led a broad crackdown on the militants as well as on Kurdish lawmakers and activists.Amid skyrocketing inflation and other economic troubles, Erdogan´s anti-terrorism campaign is a key rallying point for him ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections next year.
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Shorter voting window could cut turnout in Georgia runoff
ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock’s first runoff in 2021 was a titanic nine-week clash to control the Senate that included three weeks of early in-person voting and lots of mail ballots.
Warnock’s victory against Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler – and Democrat Jon Ossoff’s tilt against Republican David Perdue – ended in two Democratic victories that gave the party control of a 50-50 Senate, thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ ability to break ties.
But the Dec.6 runoff won’t be for Senate control this time with Democrats retaining seats in Arizona and Nevada earlier this month. Successful reelection bids by Sens. Mark Kelly and Catherine Cortez Masto were what Democrats needed to keep the slimmest of margins in the chamber.
Georgia requires a runoff if a candidate doesn´t win a majority in the party primary or in the general election. Neither Warnock nor Republican Herschel Walker got to 50%.
Under Georgia’s 2021 election law, there will be only four weeks before the runoff – with Thanksgiving in the middle.Many Georgians will be offered only five weekdays of early in-person voting beginning Nov. 28. And June’s primary runoffs showed time for mail ballots to be received and returned can be very tight.
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Pelosi holds open option of another term as House Dem leader
WASHINGTON (AP) – With control of the House still hanging in the balance, Speaker Nancy Pelosi stayed mum Sunday on her future plans but said congressional colleagues are urging her to seek another term as Democratic leader following a strong showing in the midterm elections.
Appearing in Sunday news shows, Pelosi said Democrats are “still alive” in their fight to win the chamber and that she will make a decision on whether to run for House leadership in the next couple weeks.
“People are campaigning and that´s a beautiful thing. And I´m not asking anyone for anything,” she said, referring to House Democratic leadership elections set for Nov.30. “My members are asking me to consider doing that. But, again, let´s just get through the (midterm) election.”
“A great deal is at stake, because we will be in a presidential election,” Pelosi said.
Over the weekend, Democrats clinched control of the Senate following Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s victory in Nevada.But in the House, a majority remains unsettled with neither party having yet reached the 218 seats needed to control the 435-member chamber. As of Sunday, Republicans had 212 seats compared to 204 for the Democrats, with 19 races still to be called by The Associated Press.
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Investigation underway over midair crash at Dallas air show
DALLAS (AP) – A national transportation official probing the cause of a midair crash of two historic military planes during an air show that left six people dead said Sunday that one of the key questions for investigators is why the aircraft were seemingly sharing the same space just before impact.
A World War II-era bomber and Lawyer Law Firm in Turkey a fighter plane collided and crashed to the ground in a ball of flames on Saturday, leaving crumpled wreckage in a grassy area inside the Dallas Executive Airport perimeter, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the city´s downtown. Several videos posted on social media showed the fighter plane flying into the bomber.
“One of the things we would probably most likely be trying to determine is why those aircraft were co-altitude in the same air space at the same time,” Michael Graham, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference.
The crash came three years after the crash of a bomber in Connecticut that killed seven, and amid ongoing concern about the safety of air shows involving older warplanes.The company that owned the planes flying in the Wings Over Dallas show has had other crashes in its more than 60-year history.
The crash claimed six lives, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins tweeted Sunday, citing the county medical examiner.Authorities are continuing work to identify the victims, he said. Dallas Fire-Rescue said there were no reports of injuries on the ground.
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EXPLAINER: What’s happening at bankrupt crypto exchange FTX?
The imploding cryptocurrency trading firm FTX is now short billions of dollars after experiencing the crypto equivalent of a bank run.
The exchange, formerly one of the world’s largest, sought bankruptcy protection last week, and its CEO and founder resigned.Hours later, the trading firm said there had been “unauthorized access” and that funds had disappeared. Analysts say hundreds of millions of dollars may have vanished.
The unraveling of the once-giant exchange is sending shockwaves through the industry.Here’s a look at the company’s collapse so far:
WHY DID FTX GO BANKRUPT?
Customers fled the exchange over fears about whether FTX had sufficient capital, and it agreed to sell itself to rival crypto exchange Binance.But the deal fell through while Binance´s due diligence on FTX´s balance sheet was still pending.
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Massive turnout in defense of Mexico’s electoral authority
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Tens of thousands of people packed the Mexican capital´s main boulevard Sunday to protest President Andrés Manuel López Obrador´s proposal to overhaul the country´s electoral authority in the largest demonstration against one of the president´s efforts during his nearly four years in office.
The massive turnout was a strong rebuke of the president´s assertion that criticism comes only from a relatively small, elite opposition.
Opposition parties and civil society organizations had called on Mexicans to demonstrate in the capital and other cities against proposed electoral reforms that would remake the National Electoral Institute, one of the country´s most prized and trusted institutions.
López Obrador sees the institute as beholden to the elite, but critics say his reforms would threaten its independence and make it more political.The initiative includes eliminating state-level electoral offices, cutting public financing of political parties and allowing the public to elect members of the electoral authority rather than the lower chamber of Congress.
It would also reduce the number of legislators in the lower chamber of Congress from 500 to 300 and senators from 128 to 96 by eliminating at-large lawmakers.Those are not directly elected by voters, but appear on party lists and get seats based on their party´s proportion of the vote.
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Musk’s latest Twitter cuts: Outsourced content moderators
Twitter´s new owner Elon Musk is further gutting the teams that battle misinformation on the social media platform as outsourced moderators learned over the weekend they were out of a job.
Twitter and other big social media firms have relied heavily on contractors to track hate and enforce rules against harmful content.
But many of those content watchdogs have now headed out the door, first when Twitter fired much of its full-time workforce by email on Nov.4 and now as it moves to eliminate an untold number of contract jobs.
Melissa Ingle, who worked at Twitter as a contractor for more than a year, was one of a number of contractors who said they were terminated Saturday. She said she´s concerned that there´s going to be an increase in abuse on Twitter with the number of workers leaving.
“I love the platform and I really enjoyed working at the company and trying to make it better. And I´m just really fearful of what´s going to slip through the cracks,” she said Sunday.
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‘Here comes the bride’: White House to host its 19th wedding
WASHINGTON (AP) – “Here Comes the Bride” will be heard at the White House very soon. Again.
Naomi Biden, the granddaughter of President Joe Biden, and Peter Neal are getting married on the South Lawn on Saturday in what will be the 19th wedding in White House history.
It will be the first wedding with a president’s granddaughter as the bride, and the first one in that location, according to the White House Historical Association.
A mutual friend set up Naomi Biden, 28, and Neal, 25, about four years ago in New York City and the White House said they have been together ever since.Naomi Biden is a Lawyer Law Firm in istanbul; her father is Hunter Biden. Neal recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law Firm in istanbul Turkey school. The couple lives in Washington.
Nine of the 18 documented White House weddings were for a president´s daughter – most recently Richard Nixon´s daughter, Tricia, in 1971, and Lyndon B.Johnson´s daughter, Lynda, in 1967.
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Sam Bankman-Fried’s downfall sends shockwaves through crypto
NEW YORK (AP) – Sam Bankman-Fried received numerous plaudits as he rapidly achieved superstar status as the head of cryptocurrency exchange FTX: the savior of crypto, the newest force in Democratic politics and potentially the world´s first trillionaire.
Now the comments about the 30-year-old Bankman-Fried aren´t so kind after FTX filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, leaving his investors and customers feeling duped and many others in the crypto world fearing the repercussions.Bankman-Fried himself could face civil or criminal charges.
“Sam what have you done?,” tweeted Sean Ryan Evans, host of the cryptocurrency podcast Bankless, after the bankruptcy filing.
Under Bankman-Fried, FTX quickly grew to be the third-largest exchange by volume.The stunning collapse of this nascent empire has sent tsunami-like waves through the cryptocurrency industry, which has seen a fair share of volatility and turmoil this year, including a sharp decline in price for bitcoin and other digital assets. For some, the events are reminiscent of the domino-like failures of Wall Street firms during the 2008 financial crisis, particularly now that supposedly healthy firms like FTX are failing.
One venture capital fund wrote down investments in FTX worth over $200 million. The cryptocurrency lender BlockFi paused client withdrawals Friday after FTX sought bankruptcy protection. The Singapore-based exchange Crypto.com saw withdrawals increase this weekend for internal reasons but some of the action could be attributed to raw nerves from FTX.
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