Bayrock Group is an international real estate development and investment company based in New York. It was founded by Kazakh businessman Tevfik Arif in 2001.
The Bayrock Group was founded in 2001 by Tevfik Arif, a former Soviet official from Kazakhstan who became an international businessman. He founded Bayrock after he moved some of his businesses to the United States.[1]
Arif hired Russian businessman Felix Sater as managing director of Bayrock in 2003.[2]Sater became Bayrock's Chief Operating Officer,[3] and assisted with several projects, including management of the Trump SoHo project.[2] Sater left Bayrock in 2008[4] after a New York Times article revealed his criminal past.[5][6] In 1998, Sater had pled guilty to stock racketeering and fraud as part of a US and Russian mafia-connected $40 million stock pump and dump scheme.[4] He worked with the CIA and the FBI, allegedly offering information on a black market for Stinger missiles.[4][7] Sater later worked as a senior advisor to Trump.[4]
Projects and properties[edit source]
After moving the Bayrock Group to the 24th floor of Trump Tower,[9] Arif developed a relationship with billionaire businessman Donald Trump. Bayrock went on to collaborate with The Trump Organization on projects in Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Arizona, Colorado, New York, and Florida.[2]
Loehmann's Seaport Plaza[edit source]
Arif began developing property in Brooklyn, initially redeveloping Loehmann's Seaport Plaza, a three-story, 280,000-square-foot (26,000 m2) waterfront shopping center on Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.[10] The property's tenants include Loehmann's and Nine West Shoes.
Trump International Hotel & Residence[edit source]
In 2003, Bayrock purchased a site out of bankruptcy in the Camelback Corridor of Phoenix, Arizona. Bayrock announced plans for the Trump International Hotel & Residence, a $200 million, 190-foot Trump International Hotel. Plans for the project included 97 private residential units starting at $950,000 and 188 hotel/condo rooms. While the site was approved by the Phoenix City Council and the Planning Commission in 2005, the project was curbed by public opposition[11] and never finished.[12]
Bayrock subsequently defaulted on a $36 million loan from Hypo Real Estate Capital Group, who sold the site in 2010.
Arif began developing property in Brooklyn, initially redeveloping Loehmann's Seaport Plaza, a three-story, 280,000-square-foot (26,000 m2) waterfront shopping center on Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.[10] The property's tenants include Loehmann's and Nine West Shoes.
Trump International Hotel & Residence[edit source]
In 2003, Bayrock purchased a site out of bankruptcy in the Camelback Corridor of Phoenix, Arizona. Bayrock announced plans for the Trump International Hotel & Residence, a $200 million, 190-foot Trump International Hotel. Plans for the project included 97 private residential units starting at $950,000 and 188 hotel/condo rooms. While the site was approved by the Phoenix City Council and the Planning Commission in 2005, the project was curbed by public opposition[11] and never finished.[12]
Bayrock subsequently defaulted on a $36 million loan from Hypo Real Estate Capital Group, who sold the site in 2010.
Moscow high-rise[edit source]
See also: Business projects of Donald Trump in Russia
In 2005, Donald Trump extended the Bayrock Group a one-year deal to develop a project in Moscow. Sater located Russian investors and a potential site for the high-rise, a closed pencil factory named for Sacco and Vanzetti.[9] Sater said, "We looked at some very, very large properties in Russia," on the scale of "...a large Vegas high-rise."[13] Bayrock organized a potential deal in Moscow between Trump International Hotel and Russian investors in 2007,[14] but the deal never came to fruition.[9]
Trump SoHo[edit source]
The Trump SoHo is a $450 million, 46-story, 39-unit hotel condominium located at 246 Spring Street in SoHo, New York City. The hotel was a joint venture between Bayrock, The Trump Organization, and the Sapir Organisation, a company owned by Georgian real estate developer Tamir Sapir. Trump provided a licensing deal for the hotel in exchange for a 18% equity stake in the project.[15][4] The project was funded by Kazakh businessman Alexander Mashkevitch.[16]
In 2007, Bayrock traded future profits from Trump SoHo and other projects in exchange for $50 million in financing from Icelandic company FL Group. The arrangement led Bayrock's finance director to file racketeering lawsuits, alleging that money was diverted to people outside the company, including Salvatore Lauria, an associate of Sater's.[2]
Sater was a managing director of Bayrock and a senior advisor to Trump when construction of Trump SoHo began in 2006. Sater played a major role throughout the process of the building's construction.[17]
Trump International Hotel and Tower (Fort Lauderdale)[edit source]
Bayrock worked with Trump to develop the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[15]
Europe projects[edit source]
Bayrock Group developed seven waterfront hotel resorts in Europe. The hotels are managed by the Turkish luxury hotel chain Rixos Hotels.[18] The resorts in Turkey on the Mediterranean Sea include Rixos Hotel Tekirova near Tekirova; Rixos Hotel Belek in Belek; Rixos Hotel Labada near Çamyuva; and Rixos Hotel Beldibi in Beldibi.
Lawsuits involving Bayrock[edit source]
See also: Legal affairs of Donald Trump
Arizona suit (2007)[edit source]
Trump International Hotel & Residence investor Ernest Mennes filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Arizona in 2007. The suit alleged that Bayrock had skimmed money its planned Trump development in Phoenix.[5] It further alleged that Sater had called Mennes in 2006, threatening that if he revealed Sater's criminal past, that his cousin would "electrically shock Mr. Mennes' testicles, cut off Mr. Mennes' legs, and leave Mr. Mennes dead in the trunk of his car."[9] The case was settled by Bayrock[5] and Mennes was barred from discussing the matter.[9]
Kriss v. Bayrock[edit source]
In the federal case Kriss et al. vs. Bayrock Group LLC et al., two former Bayrock employees, former director of finance Jody Kriss and Michael Chudi Ejekam, filed a suit in the U.S. District Court in New York in 2010.[19] The suit alleged that Sater's role in the company was hidden and that the company was "substantially and covertly mob-owned and operated."[5][20]
Trump SoHo lawsuits[edit source]
In 2011, the Rockwell Group, an interior design firm, sued Bayrock and Sapir Organization for over $1.5 million in damages after Bayrock failed to pay for interior design work at Trump SoHo. Bayrock countersued two days later, filing a complaint with the New York Supreme Court.[21]
Qui tam case (2015)[edit source]
Attorneys Frederick Oberlander and Richard Lerner brought a qui tam case against Bayrock in 2015.[22][23] The suit alleged that Arif, Satter, and Julius Schwarz had been in control of Bayrock for nearly a decade[3] and had "engaged in a series of tax frauds and then took steps to hide the fraud."[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayrock_Group
