Bad Magic | The Closing Bell | S4-E4

A car pulled over on a quiet stretch of road in northeastern Vermont. Inside was Jerry Banks, a jail guard. He put the car in park and took a deep breath. Then he picked up his phone.

He'd been preparing for this night for months. A neighbor of his back in Nevada, a man named Aaron Etheridge, had come to him with a job. Banks did a reconnaissance mission and figured it was going to be more complicated than he thought, so he upped his fee and now here he was.

Banks pulled a ski mask with a U.

S Marshal's insignia on it, down over his face. Then turned on police lights on the dashboard of his white Ford Explorer. And drove a short distance down the road to the house of Greg Davis.

The day after Davis's body was found, a state trooper was on patrol just outside Alma, Kansas. When he noticed a vehicle stray from its lane, he turned on his lights and pulled it over a white Ford Explorer. It was a little after 2 p..m. on an overcast winter day.

As the trooper approached the vehicle, he noticed the back seat was folded down and a mattress spread over the back of the car.

Jerry Banks had been driving for over 24 hours since the murder. He was exhausted and, according to the trooper's report, acting extremely nervous. The officer peered inside the truck and saw what appeared to be law enforcement equipment, including a bulletproof vest and a gun. He looked Jerry Banks up and down.

But then sent him on his way.

Four days later, Enochian Biosciences was born, and Sir Hutcombe Rooktree was on track to be worth millions.

But soon there would be more than a state trooper asking questions.

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It was December of 2018, almost a year after Greg Davis's body was found. There'd been no arrests in the media, the case seemed all but forgotten.

Meanwhile, in New York's Times Square, a giant jumbotron was broadcasting Nasdaq's closing bell ceremony there. Surrounded by advertisements for TV shows, perfumes and mobile phones, Enochian's logo flashed up on the screen.

Trading on Nasdaq also meant Enochian could raise the kind of capital they needed to fund their cutting-edge science. The possibilities seemed endless.

Serhat walked on stage wearing a slim black suit and skinny gray tie. He stood next to one of Enochian's scientific advisors, Dr. Mark Dybul, a slight man with thinning blonde hair. On the other side stood the chairman, René Sinn-lev, tall with a pocket square and shiny buttons on his dark suit.

According to Thomas, the Hindenburg researcher, there were some at Enochian who raised questions about their star scientist. One senior executive Thomas spoke with said he became suspicious of several of Serhat's claims. There were small things. Like, once he tried striking up a conversation with Serhat in one of the nine languages, he boasted about speaking. But Serhat just looked back at him with incomprehension. And then there were more serious things. According to court documents, Enochian's chief financial officer brought concerns about Serhat to the board.

His security detail was costing the company nearly $800,000 a year. When asked about the security detail, Enochian responded. The board of directors reviewed the security arrangements for Grim Ruktu on several occasions and concluded that they were in the best interests of the company.

But from the outside, Enochian was going from strength to strength. In 2021, the board brought in a new CEO, Dr. Mark Dybul. He'd previously been one of the company's scientific advisors. For Robert at Hindenburg, Dybul was one of the biggest mysteries of all.

What did he see in Serhat?

Dybul defended Serhat even about things that might have raised eyebrows. In January 2020, a journalist from Medwatch, a pharma industry news outlet, asked Dybul about the fact that Serhat was listed online. As an expert in paranormal psychology, Dybul said he saw nothing wrong with it. Personally, I think it's fantastic. He admitted that Serhat had an unorthodox research approach, but said he was an unconventional genius, one like Einstein or Bill Gates.

And Dybul's opinion had weight.

Dybul was walking a tightrope. Sometimes he was Serhat's biggest advocate, sometimes not.

In late 2020, Serhat wrote to the Turkish court to try and clear his name for the fraud case that had led him to flee the country. To the 8th High Criminal Court of Istanbul, I do not accept at all any of the allegations about me. My intention was not at all committing fraud, it was only about helping. The submission came with a letter of support for Mark Dybul.

Dybul says he wrote the letter to support a citizenship application and was not aware that Serhat was using it in a criminal case. The letter made Serhat sound like an incredible scientific luminary. I have been privileged to know Nobel laureates, leaders of industry and philanthropy, including Bill Gates, heads of state and government, among others. Dr. Gumruktu rises to the top of that group.

He is a rare genius who has tremendous potential to advance science and human development. In a historical way, the letter went on, Dr. Gumruktu is somewhat unique among the scientific geniuses I have met.

He is deeply compassionate, empathetic and approachable. He is an exceptional leader. His science emanates from his deep commitment to serve people who suffer from incurable and untreatable diseases. He has the potential to contribute greatly to scientific discoveries, education, job creation and philanthropy. I provide this strongest of recommendations freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.

Respectfully, the honorable Mark Dybul, M.

D.

On June 14, 2021, Inokian Biosciences made a big announcement Serhat's HIV therapy had taken its first step towards FDA approval.

But Serhat didn't seem to have been content with just founding a biotech firm. A few months after Inokian was formed, he helped open a new clinic, offering treatments directly to patients. The clinic was named Seraph after the highest rank of angels. It was located in L..A. in a sleek office tower with tinted windows.

But he kept it low-key.

The clinic's website said it had published in prominent medical journals, but the doctors couldn't find the actual articles.

They concluded that there was no evidence that the treatment worked and that families with terminally ill children were being exploited and fed false hope.

As Robert digested the reports, he realized that journalists had already raised questions about Serhat, and yet Enochian was still riding high.

S.

S.

It was a potentially explosive set of discoveries. Up until now, they'd been trying to tread carefully so as not to tip Serhat off to their investigation. Thomas had done his best to make sure it stayed that way. But in March of 2022, an email landed in his inbox from a law firm in Los Angeles.

We have also received reports of your harassment of Serhat Medical's former patients and associates of Dr. Gumrucu and their family members. This letter serves as advance warning that should you fail to cease and desist and or publish an article about Dr. Gumrucu. We have been authorized to file suit immediately against you. That's just the first paragraph.

Will I lose my savings? How far will they go?

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As they wait to be rescued, the workers soon realize that Piper Alpha has transformed into a death trap. Follow against the odds. Wherever you get your podcasts, you can listen ad-free on Amazon Music or the Wondery app.

No offense, Travis Kelsey, but you got to step up your game if Pat Mahomes is saying the Chiefs need to have more fun. This year. We're also handing out a series of awards and making picks for the top storylines surrounding the world of football awards. Like the He May Have a Point award for the wide receiver, that's most justifiably bitter. Is it? Brandon Ayuk T.

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Nate could hardly believe what he was reading.

In 2018, in the days after Greg Davis's body had been found in the snow. A detective in the Vermont State police told the FBI. They might want to take a listen to a 911 call that had come in on the same night that Davis was kidnapped. 911 What's your emergency? The caller told Dispatch that he'd just shot his wife and he was getting ready to do the same thing to himself. He gave an address where police could find the bodies.

71772 cross road and hung up.

Very quickly, the local police realized there was something off about the call. There was no cross road.

The FBI traced the phone and found that it was purchased at a Walmart in Pennsylvania. Security footage showed a bearded man in his mid-30s walk out of the store and climb into a white Ford explorer.

With no plates visible, it wasn't much to go on. Investigators sifted through more than 17,000 vehicle sales and service records. Looking for a match? By February of 2020, two years after the murder, they had traced it back to a used car dealer in Denver. The salesman vaguely remembered the guy who bought it. He described him as a ghost. No credit lived off the grid.

A man named Jerry Banks.

Investigators traced his call history and found that 24 hours after Greg Davis was abducted. Banks called a man named Aaron Etheridge. After that, Etheridge had called a former neighbor of his. A man living just off the Las Vegas strip, named Burke Arate. Now, the FBI hadn't just found their suspected hitman, they had a link to a possible motive, too, because Burke Arate was a childhood friend of a certain Turkish magician.

A magician turned biotech founder.

On May 24, 2022, while waiting to board a flight to New York, Serhat Gumrukcu was arrested on murder for hire, charges connected to the death of Greg Davis.

Investigators had found the messages about the failed oil deal on Davis phone. Serhat pled not guilty.

For the Hindenburg team, it had come out of nowhere. They knew the magician, the healer, the scientific genius, but alleged murderer.

From Wondery, This is episode four of five of Dr. Death Bad Magic. I'm Your host Laura Beale. This series is written by Benjamin Gray. producer is Nika Singh.

Senior producer is Russell Finch, story editor is Alison Weintraub. senior editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Fact-checking by Jacqueline Colletti.

Additional reporting by Gulsan Harman, production assistance by Mariah Dennis and Emily Locke. sound design and mixing by Kyle Randall. Senior managing producer is Lata Pandya. coordinating producer is Heather Beloga.

Produced by Storyforce, Music supervisor is Scott Velazquez for FreeSound Sync. Special thanks to Nate Anderson and the staff at Hindenburg Research for use of their reporting. Executive producers are Bly Pagan-Faust and Corey Shepard Stern for Storyforce. Our executive producers are George Lavender, Marshall Louie and Jen Sargent for Wondery.

She struck him with her motor vehicle, she had been under the influence, and then she left him there.