Billionaire Mashkevitch in hot water over sex scandal

Kazakh-Israeli billionaire Alexander Mashkevitch, who was recently linked to a sex scandal which took place aboard legendary Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's yacht, was reportedly present and arrested during Monday's raid.

Turkish police raided the historic vessel following a lead and arrested 20 people, including prostitutes – some of whom were minors – on suspicion of taking part in wild orgies aboard the historic vessel.

According to a Friday report in Yedioth Ahronoth, Mashkevitch – who chartered the luxury vessel at the time of the raid – was arrested along with the others and was later released on bail.

News of Mashkevitch's involvement in the scandal made quite a splash in the Turkish media, which reported that he leased the yacht for five days, during which the illicit sexual rendezvous took place. Such activity would be considered a great affront to Ataturk and mandates criminal charges.

According to the Turkish media, Mashkevitch – who founded the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and is a member of the World Jewish Congress – retained one of Ankara's leading law firms to represent him in the matter. The information has not been confirmed, as Mashkevitch's spokesman was unavailable for comment.

New details reveal that among those arrested aboard the ship were several statesmen from Central Asia, as well as Russian Jewish businessmen Telman Ismailov, a Kazakh-American businessman and "a senior aide to the Kazakh prime minister."

Still, senior members of the World Jewish Congress demanded Mashkevitch clear up his part of the scandal, saying that if there is any truth to his rumored involvement he should be fired from the congress.

Mashkevitch, who is worth a reported 3$.3 billion, is a known benefactor of numerous Jewish organizations. World Jewish Congress spokesperson Betty Ehrenberg declined comment on the matter, saying only that the billionaire had nothing to do with her organization, adding that since the facts of the case are still unknown; it was too early to comment.

Turkish police on Monday raided the historic yacht used by legendary Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. On the decks of the exclusive craft, 20 businessmen and prostitutes were arrested on suspicion of taking part in wild orgies.

Some of the alleged prostitutes were minors from Russia and Ukraine. Turkish media reported that the person who had chartered the exquisite vessel at that time was the Kazakh billionaire Alexander Mashkevitch, who also holds Israeli citizenship and is president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.

According to Turkish reports, there are receipts proving that Mashkevitch, who has businesses throughout central Asia, paid in advance for the use of the yacht for five days – exactly the days during which the wild parties were allegedly held.

However, Turkish authorities say a sex trade network was using the yacht, which was leased by the government five years ago to a local businessman. The authorities say participants in the orgies paid between $3,000 and $10,000 for a night on the decks of the yacht.

 The 446-foot Savarona includes 17 luxury suites. It was built in 1931 for Mrs. Emily Roebling Cadwalader, granddaughter of New York's Brooklyn Bridge architect John Augustus Roebling, and purchased by the Turkish government in 1938. Ataturk, considered the father of modern Turkey, enjoyed a few weeks aboard before his death in the same year.

About 20 years ago, the ship was leased for a period of 49 years in exchange for $60 million. The high maintenance costs compel the lease holder to charter the vessel out for various uses. Diana Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed were among the VIPs who chartered the yacht.

The orgy affair raised a storm in Turkey, because any slur on the memory of Ataturk is an offense punishable by imprisonment. Turkey's finance minister rushed to declare the cancelation of the lease agreement, the confiscation of the vessel, and its transfer to Ministry of Culture responsibility. The main opposition party, which continues in Ataturk's path, calls for turning the yacht into a national museum.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3966384,00.html

A historical yacht belonging to the founder of modern Turkey will be delivered to the nation’s Culture Ministry after the boat became embroiled in a prostitution scandal involving underage girls.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay demanded Wednesday that the yacht be turned over to his control.

The yacht, the Savarona, was used by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and is currently the property of the Finance Ministry, which has rented the boat to businessman Kahraman Sadıkoğlu for 49 years.

Fourteen people onboard the Savarona were detained Monday in a raid on an alleged prostitution ring as the boat lay moored near the Mediterranean town of Göcek.

Those detained included foreign businessmen and underage girls brought from Russia and the Ukraine for high-cost prostitution. The girls were obtained through foreign modeling agencies, news wires said.

Among the suspects was an individual who said he was an adviser to Kazakhstan’s prime minister.

A prosecutor in Antalya in charge of organized crime said they had learned that the Savarona had twice before been used for prostitution.

The Savarona is a 136-meter yacht with 17 luxury suites built in 1931 for the daughter of Brooklyn Bridge chief engineer John A. Roebling. It was sold to Turkey in 1938 and used by Ataturk to host important guests before his death later that year.

In 1989, Turkish businessman Sadıkoğlu paid $60 million to the Finance Ministry for the rights to operate the Savarona for 49 years, daily Habertürk said. Sadıkoğlu rents the yacht to tourists for $30,000-$40,000 a day to help cover annual costs of more than $3 million, it said. Sadıkoğlu was in Iraq at the time of the raid and said he would evaluate the situation upon his return, Habertürk said.

İlhan Parseker, a board member of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, or TOBB, called into question the boat's ownership after the raid, daily Hürriyet reported.

"The government has the right to re-nationalize the yacht as it was used outside of its purpose," Parseker said.

Parseker also said they heard that Sadıkoğlu had signed a preliminary contract with Russian interests to sell the boat to them, Anatolia news agency reported.

Hearing this, TOBB made a recommendation that the Savarona be turned into a museum rather than sold abroad.

“However, we have stopped following the issue because we learned that Treasury approval was needed to sell the boat and we thought the Treasury would not approve the sale to Russians,” Parseker said.

The Culture Ministry could consider turning the yacht into a museum, Günay told reporters Wednesday in Ankara.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=ataturks-yacht-raided-for-pro...

12-26-2004 Kidnappers have abducted a Turkish shipping magnate and three others in southern Iraq and demanded a $US25 million ransom, the Turkish private NTV television channel said on Saturday.

It said Kahraman Sadikoglu, one of Turkey's richest businessmen, had been seized in the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr alongside a boat captain and a driver, both Turks, and an unnamed bodyguard.

A video of Mr Sadikoglu showed him being questioned by unseen kidnappers.

"A group abducted us four or five days ago saying we did something wrong. They're investigating, but also look after us very well," Mr Sadikoglu said.

Mr Sadikoglu is head of Dubai-based International Marine Contractors which last year won a 92 million UAE dirham ($US25 million) contract to remove 19 sunken ships from Umm Qasr.

"We brought food to this country, we enabled the delivery of food. We fed many hungry people. That is what we did. If this is a crime, then we are ready to be punished," he said.

Turkish television said Mr Sadikoglu was preparing to bid in a new $90 million UN tender for retrieving more sunken ships.

His family contacted the Turkish Foreign Ministry saying the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of $US25 million.

The channel quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying the group had been abducted as they travelled from Iran to Iraq and that US authorities had been alerted and British forces in the area had set up roadblocks around Umm Qasr.

In 1989, Mr Sadikoglu bought a 49-year lease on the world's second largest yacht, the Savarona, from the Turkish government.

Built in 1931, and once owned by the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Savarona has a Turkish bath inside made from some 33 tonnes of marble.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1272263.htm

A New York real estate mogul with ties to Donald Trump is at the center of an international sex scandal – suspected of running a high-priced prostitution ring.

Tevfik Arif, 57, has been detained in Turkey on suspicion of setting up trysts between wealthy businessmen and Eastern European models – some underage – aboard a $60 million yacht once used by the nation’s founder, Mustafa Ataturk.

Arif, whose Bayrock Group co-developed the Trump SoHo and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Fort Lauderdale, was among 10 people rounded up in Tuesday’s raid on suspicion of running a prostitution ring.

Prosecutor Yusuf Hakki Dogan said the Savarona yacht was used twice for sexcapades, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported.

“This is the man who defiled the Savarona,” read the headline on the cover of the Turkish paper Milliyet, beside a photo of Arif.

Ten models from Russia and Ukraine were detained, but one was released, Bloomberg News reported. Two of the women were underage.

The businessmen reportedly paid $3,000 to $10,000 per night to bed the women aboard the 450-foot yacht.

The luxury vessel, which boasts 16 suites, a 282-foot gold-trimmed grand staircase, a movie theater, Turkish bath and helicopter pad, was used by Ataturk before he died in 1938.

In 1989, Turkish businessman Kahraman Sadikoglu paid the government for the right to operate the yacht, which he reportedly rents out for $30,000 to $40,000 a day.

Russian, Kyrgyz and Kazakh businessmen and top government officials were also among those detained, Bloomberg News reported.

Last night, Arif was being questioned at a police station near the Mediterranean resort town of Antalya.

Antalya provincial spokesman Mahmut Deniz said there’s been no decision on whether to press charges.

Arif is the victim of a “smear campaign” and will “vigorously defend himself in any court of law,” his lawyer, Engin Agyuzlu, said in an email to Bloomberg News.

In addition to the Trump properties in New York and Florida, Arif’s firm developed the Trump International Hotel and Tower Phoenix, the Waterpointe, a residential development in Whitestone, Queens, and the Riverhead Resorts in Suffolk County, L.I.

In an interview in 2007, Arif extolled the benefits of his relationship with The Donald.

“He’s been very helpful to us from the beginning and he’s been very helpful in opening some doors,” Arif told Real Estate Weekly.

Photos from the 2007 launch party for the Trump SoHo Hotel show Trump and Arif palling around together. Arif was also photographed beside Trump and his three kids: Eric, Donald Jr., and Ivanka.

A spokeswoman for Trump declined to comment on his relationship with Arif.

A source said Trump hasn’t spoken to Arif “in years.”

The Kazakh-born Arif worked for the Ministry of Commerce and Trade in the former Soviet Union for 17 years, serving as the deputy director of its Department of Hotel Management, according to Real Estate Weekly.

After moving to the U.S., Arif’s first project was the redevelopment of a 280,000 square-foot waterfront shopping center in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Loehmann’s Seaport Plaza was sold in 2008 for a reported $24 million.

Arif founded Bayrock in 2001, which he operates out of an office on Fifth Ave.

“Bayrock knows nothing about the matter,” said a spokeswoman for the firm.

Arif owns a three-story mansion in Port Washington, L.I., worth more than $6 million, records show.

In recent years, Bayrock has been the target of multiple lawsuits.

In suits filed in New York and Delaware, former Bayrock finance director Jody Kriss claims that the firm defrauded the IRS and embezzled millions from its subsidiaries.

In a separate lawsuit filed in August in Manhattan Federal Court, 15 buyers of the Trump SoHo Hotel sued Arif, Trump, his children, and Arif’s partner, Alex Sapir, charging they had inflated sales in their marketing pitches to encourage them to buy into the condo.

http://www.turkishforum.com.tr/en/content/2010/10/02/donald-trump-pal-...

Submitted by andie531 on Fri, 2010-10-08 18:57

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