A real estate developer who calls himself “Turkish Trump” was among a group of businessmen who gave money to Mayor Adams’ reelection campaign as part of a 2023 fundraiser that’s emerging as a focus in the federal corruption case against the mayor, the Daily News has learned.
Mukemmel Sarimsakci, a Turkish-born developer who has used the Trump moniker for years and was once involved in a project to build a Trump-branded hotel in Texas, contributed $2,100 — the legal maximum — to Adams in connection with the Oct. 9, 2023 fundraiser in Weehawken, N.J., an internal campaign document obtained by The News reveals.
Sarimsakci’s involvement in the fundraiser — as a wealthy, Turkish government-connected businessman who has overseen real estate projects around the world worth hundreds of millions of dollars — highlights how individuals affiliated with Turkish interests seek to boost campaigns of U.S. politicians, a theme that lies at the heart of the mayor’s recent corruption indictment.
This past February, after the federal probe into Adams’ Turkey ties first came to light, The News reported the Weehawken fundraiser was attended and co-hosted by members of two Turkish interest groups.
Since then, federal prosecutors have indicted Adams on criminal charges alleging he solicited bribes and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish government operatives in exchange for doing political favors for the Turkish government, including helping it resolve safety violations at its Manhattan consulate. Adams has pleaded not guilty.
The indictment notes the Weehawken fundraiser’s organizers, Turk of America publisher Cemil Ozyurt and PR rep Cuneyt Gurkan, are “associates” of Reyhan Özgür, Turkey’s consul general in New York, who was looped in on planning for the event.
Sarimsakci’s participation in the fundraising for Adams wasn’t mentioned in the indictment or previously known. It is not clear if Sarimsakci actually attended the gathering or only donated as part of it.
While stressing he has no personal knowledge of Sarimsakci’s affiliations, Henri Barkey, a Turkish affairs expert, said businessmen of his caliber have long been key to advancing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s agenda abroad, including by financially supporting U.S. politicians.
“Erdogan has expanded his network of business folks across the world dramatically in recent years, and it’s individuals like [Sarimsakci] he usually turns to,” Barkey, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said before noting Erdogan’s government tightly controls Turkish business sectors. “He gives them contracts, permission to build, and they help him abroad. They both benefit from that type of relationship.”
The feds haven’t accused Sarimsakci of any wrongdoing. He didn’t return multiple requests for comment this month.
Sarimsakci — who has been involved in Turkish government outreach efforts in the U.S. and holds significant real estate interests in Turkey — made his contribution to Adams in two installments, $100 on Sept. 25, 2023 and $2,000 the next day, city records show.
Though Sarimsakci gave money two weeks before the Weehawken fundraiser, the internal Adams campaign record obtained by The News lists his contributions as being among nine totaling $9,450 received as part of the event.
Submitted to the city Campaign Finance Board, the document is supposed to disclose all donations Adams’ team got in connection with the event.
But The News independently confirmed in February the fundraiser actually drew at least $17,750 from nearly 20 donors. Many of the contributors whose names weren’t included on the campaign document are affiliated with the two Turkish interest groups, which go by the acronyms TASC and TACCI.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Adams, declined to comment this week, as did the CFB.
The Weehawken event, the feds say in Adams’ indictment, was among several campaign fundraisers the mayor attended that were coordinated by Turkish nationals where “attendees agreed to make, and Adams greed to accept, straw donations” — contributions illegally routed through U.S. individuals to mask the foreign source of the cash.
The indictment doesn’t make clear whether Sarimsakci’s contributions were among the alleged straw contributions.
Sarimsakci got his start in American real estate in the 1990s when he joined Bechtel, a Virginia construction firm, upon graduating from a Colorado college after moving to the U.S. from Turkey, according to his website. Years later, Sarimsakci founded Alterra, a real estate firm with offices in Istanbul that has overseen major residential and commercial projects in Texas and California.
Most of Alterra’s business deals, though, are overseas, with various projects in Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iraq and Niger, according to the firm’s website and news reports. In Niger, Alterra helped build the country’s presidential palace, the website says.
In 2017, Sarimsakci — who has publicly toyed with the idea of running for U.S. Senate — made headlines for being in talks with then-President Donald Trump’s company to build a Trump hotel in Dallas, where Alterra’s other deals include constructing a $142 million luxury apartment building. The hotel deal eventually collapsed.
“Do what you want, just go ahead and do it,” Sarimsakci said in a 2015 interview when asked what advice he has for young entrepreneurs. “If you pair up with the right people … the sky is the limit.”
Adams’ indictment alleges straw donations were funneled to his campaign from the Weehawken fundraiser after the organizers “instructed” a businessman, previously identified by The News as Eyup Ulu, to use a “unique” website link to route “foreign donations through U.S. citizens.” Ulu, owner of an import-export business, became involved because he allowed Gurkan and Ozyurt to host the fundraiser in a building overlooking the Manhattan skyline where he has an apartment, the indictment says.
Adams’ indictment quotes texts exchanged between his longtime fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, and Rana Abbasova, his Turkish community liaison, the day before the event. Abbasova, who’s cooperating with the feds, was recently fired from her City Hall job.
“Are they going to make the limit?” Suggs is quoted as texting Abbasova on Oct. 8, 2023, referring to Gurkan and Ozyurt. “Yes. They said as agreed we will collect the 25K,” replied Abbasova, who accompanied Adams to the fundraiser.
Ulu, Gurkan and Ozyurt haven’t returned requests for comment on Sarimsakci’s participation in the fundraiser, and neither has Vito Pitta, Adams’ campaign attorney.
The Adams campaign document obtained by The News, which reported a lower amount of money raised than what was discussed by Abbasova and Suggs, doesn’t say whether Sarimsakci was at the Weehawken event in person.
His donations to Adams are the only ones Sarimsakci is recorded as giving a New York political candidate. Records show he has contributed on the federal level to both Democrats and Republicans, including Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Like many others involved in the Weehawken fundraiser, Sarimsakci’s Turkish government connections are tied to interest groups operating in the U.S.
A 2019 press release from the Turkish Coalition of America, the Turkish government’s main U.S. lobbying arm, lists Sarimsakci as a “silver sponsor” of the organization’s annual youth leadership conference in Washington, D.C. Sarimsakci is also a board member of the EastWest Institute, a think tank that has hosted Erdogan for speaking engagements in the U.S.
In 2017, Sarimsakci was the moderator of a real estate panel at a conference in Manhattan hosted by the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association, a pro-Erdogan trade group that frequently hosts events featuring the Turkish leader across the globe.
Adams, who served as Brooklyn borough president at the time, also attended the 2017 event. At it, he delivered remarks as a “keynote” speaker alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Turkish Economic Minister Nihat Zeybekci.
