American biotech entrepreneur Serhat Gumrukcu, 42, has been convicted of orchestrating a murder-for-hire scheme that led to the death of his former business partner, Gregory Davis, after a failed oil deal.
Gumrukcu, the Los Angeles-based founder of Enochian Biosciences, faces a mandatory life sentence for the 2018 abduction and killing of Davis, a father of six whose wife was pregnant with their seventh child.
Davis was taken from his Vermont home on January 6, 2018, and found shot dead the following day near a snowbank in Barnet, Vermont, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said Gumrukcu enlisted his associate, Berk Eratay, 38, who then used another intermediary, Aron Ethridge, 45, to hire hitman Jerry Banks, 37.
Banks posed as a U.S. Marshal, abducted Davis under the pretense of questioning, and later killed him.
Investigators uncovered emails and messages showing mounting conflict between Gumrukcu and Davis over the failed oil deal. Gumrukcu lied during two FBI interviews, but digital evidence and financial records eventually exposed his role and that of his co-conspirators.
At the time of the murder, Gumrukcu was pursuing a multimillion-dollar merger involving Enochian Biosciences and his claimed HIV cure. Prosecutors argued that Davis’s threat to sue over their collapsed oil deal risked jeopardizing the merger, prompting Gumrukcu to order the killing.
Gumrukcu was arrested in May 2022 and convicted in April of murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and wire fraud. Acting U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher credited years of joint investigative work by federal and state authorities for uncovering the plot.
Banks, Ethridge, and Eratay were also convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 110 to 200 months, followed by supervised release.
In court last month, Davis’s widow, Melissa, condemned Gumrukcu for destroying her family. “I stand here today not only as a widow but as the mother of seven children whose lives were shattered the night Gregg was taken from us,” she said. “You thought you could silence my husband, but your lies die here in this courtroom.”
Gumrukcu’s sentencing is scheduled for November.
