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California Biotech Tycoon Found Guilty of Orchestrating Rival's Murder · Murder Files Unsealed

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the deep Dive. This is where we
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sift through all that information you send our way, finding
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those essential, sometimes really fascinating and honestly sometimes terrifying stories
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you need to know about. And today we're tackling a
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story that's just well, it's pretty incredible. It starts out
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in California, you know, the whole billion dollar biotech scene, right.
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Speaker 2: Sun drenched labs, cutting edge science.
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Speaker 1: Yes, so it seems exactly. And then it takes this
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sharp turn and crashes right into like the frozen woods
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of rural Vermont. It's a real culture clash.
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Speaker 2: It really is a collision of worlds. You could say,
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you've got this peak of medical ambition or supposed ambition
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meeting the absolute depths of organized crime. It honestly sounds
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unbelievable when you first hear it.
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Speaker 1: It does.
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Speaker 2: So our mission today for you listening is to unpack
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this whole saga. Yeah, the story of Sarah hot Gumruku.
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He painted himself as this medical visionary, right and la
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biotech mogul, right.
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Speaker 1: The classic archetype almost, but.
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Speaker 2: His ambition, which was clearly he just completely unchecked, spiraled
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into this shockingly sophisticated murder for higher plot and the
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victim he is former business partner Gregory Davis.
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Speaker 1: The details themselves are just staggering. Gmuruku. He was forty two,
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living the high life, this Hollywood Hills visionary type. Yet
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he was just convicted. This was October sixth, twenty twenty five,
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so very recently, for orchestrating this murder back in twenty.
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Speaker 2: Eighteen, and the charges weren't minor. We're talking murder for
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higher conspiracy and.
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Speaker 1: The big one the foundation wire fraud exactly.
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Speaker 2: That wire fraud piece is so so critical. He's now
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facing mandatory life in prison. That tells you just how
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serious this was. How a financial crime could escalate so violently.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, mandatory life, no chance of parole.
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Speaker 2: And you really need to grasp how that financial crime,
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the wire fraud, was the absolute core motive here. This
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wasn't some you know, sudden rage or anything like that.
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It was calculated, desperate maybe, but absolutely calculated, a maneuver
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to protect this completely fraudulent world.
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Speaker 1: He'd built an illusion, really.
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Speaker 2: Totally an illusion. He constructed this facade, maybe you'd call
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it an empire in that super competitive like three hundred
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billion dollars California biotech.
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Speaker 1: World, cutthroat environment, absolutely.
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Speaker 2: And when that whole structure was about to crumble because
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of Davis, he resorted to the most extreme form of
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damage control imaginable.
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Speaker 1: It really is the ultimate cautionary tale, isn't it About
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what happens when ambition just goes.
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Speaker 2: Off the rails, completely off the rails, and.
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Speaker 1: Crosses that line from just you know, aggressive business into
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outright deadly criminality. Its high tech fraud meets brutally low
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tech violence.
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Speaker 2: And the way he set up the crime itself, it
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just screams intention his attempt at like total deniability. The
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acting US attorney Michael Dresher, he described it perfectly during
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the trial.
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Speaker 1: How did he put it?
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Speaker 2: He called it a Russian doll structure. Gmurukuh basically tried
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to hide his role by paying one guy okay, to
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pay another guy to pay the actual hitman. A chain
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of command designed early for insulation to protect the guy
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at the top.
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Speaker 1: Wow, layers upon layers.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, deniability built right in.
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Speaker 1: So what we're going to do now is really pull
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apart the layers. We're gonna look piece by piece at
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how this man who sold himself on curing you know,
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major diseases.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, like Hivad's big claims, was actually living this complete
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double life, a life that just fatally tangled up high finance,
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fake science, and well the most brutal kind of outsourced violence.
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Speaker 2: Well, trace how the investigators followed the money, the digital clues,
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all those little breadcrumbs that eventually blew up this scheme
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designed for maximum distance.
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Speaker 1: It's a masterclass in duality, really, the public genius versus
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the private monster.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Okay, let's.
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Speaker 1: Get into it. We need to start at the beginning
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with the illusion itself because Sarahatgumuruku's origin story, it's not
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your typical scientist's path. It's more like something out of
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a I don't know, bizarre novel. So where does this
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guy even come from? Professional? Not a lab coat insight? Initially, no,
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not at all.
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Speaker 2: He started out on stage. Literally, he was a professional
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magician back in.
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Speaker 1: Turkey, a magician.
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Speaker 2: Seriously, seriously, how when you think about it, it kind
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of makes a weird sort of sense, right, Illusions misdirection
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making people believe things that aren't real.
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Speaker 1: Huh Yeah, I guess the skill set transfers in a
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dark way.
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Speaker 2: Right. So around the early twenty tens, he decides to
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pull off his biggest trick yet, reinventing himself. Almost overnight,
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he becomes this supposed medical visionary.
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Speaker 1: Okay, but how you can't just decide to be a
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medical visionary. You need credentials, research something.
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Speaker 2: Well, that's where the fraud comes in. This wasn't just
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about confidence, It required actual fake documents. The sources we
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looked at are clear. His main deception was buying a
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medical degree n'e one yep, purchased from some let's say,
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less than reputable Russian university, unaccredited, basically worthless.
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Speaker 1: And he admitted this.
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Speaker 2: He did at trial. Can you believe it? The sheer arrogance,
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like a pizza paper didn't matter as much as a persona.
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It let him create. He literally bought the title doctor
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Sarah hot gumruku wow.
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Speaker 1: Okay. So, armed with this fate.
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Speaker 2: Title, he launches Enochian Biosciences. And even the name is
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a tell if you know where to look.
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Speaker 1: Enochian what's that?
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Speaker 2: It refers to Inochian magic, This supposed angelic language from
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like sixteenth century occultism, M John.
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Speaker 1: D and all that seriously angelic language.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a direct nod to his magician roots, his
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interest in the mystical. This wasn't some standard biotech startup
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name like gene Tech or something. It was steeped in
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illusion from the get.
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Speaker 1: Go, so Inochian Biosciences. What was their big claim?
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Speaker 2: The biggest possible claim? Really a groundbreaking cure for hiveades
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derived from some kind of complex gene therapy. That's what
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he pitched, A cure for HIV.
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Speaker 1: That's monumental if true.
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Speaker 2: If true, exactly, he sold it hard, pitch decks, meetings
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with serious venture capitalists, tell everyone he was on the
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verge of solving one of humanity's greatest medical challenges, hope
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in a bottle.
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Speaker 1: Basically, but surely people did due diligence. How could the
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market be fooled so easily on something that big a
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fake degree claims of an HIV here, that's.
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Speaker 2: The really disturbing part, and that says a lot about
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maybe some issues in the biotech funding world. The due
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diligence often gets laser focused on the potential return, the
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market size, the money, the money, and the founder's charisma.
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Can this person sell the vision? Gamuruku was a master salesman.
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He exploited that blind spot.
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Speaker 1: He was a magician after all.
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Speaker 2: Precisely one former associate this came out in testimony said
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Gamuku could make you believe he held the keys to immortality.
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Think of that phrase. That's the level of mesmerizing bs.
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He was peddling, and he.
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Speaker 1: Played the part visually too right.
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Speaker 2: The lifestyle, oh, absolutely to the extreme. We're talking a massive,
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multi million dollar mansion up in the Hollywood Hills, of course,
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hosting these lavish A list parties. You'd have oscar winners
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mingling with venture capitalists, producers, everyone drinking the kool aid
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believing in this guy.
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Speaker 1: He cultivated that image online too constantly.
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Speaker 2: His social media at doctor Hat was all luxury cars,
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yacht parties, private jets, intersposed with photos of him looking
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serious in a lab coat. The perfect blend of genius
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and glamour. But underneath it all pure smoke and mirrors.
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The science. It was pseudoscience. The sources confirm his HIV
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cure was built on fabricated research data, completely manipulated paper
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is ghost written by people he paid off to lend
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him credibility. So where was the money coming from if
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not the science? This is crucial for the wire fraud conviction.
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His real money, his fortune wasn't from any medical breakthrough.
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It came from these really shady, high risk oil commodities deals,
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international trading schemes.
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Speaker 1: Ah okay, So the biotech was the flashy cover story,
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while the real engine was this other possibly illegal financial stuff.
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Speaker 2: Percisely, it's the classic Baden switch, draw people in with
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the shiny promise of curing disease. He's the Hollywood lifestyle,
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but the actual business was fleecing people in these complex
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Ponzi like oil deals hidden behind layers of global finance jargon.
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Speaker 1: In this case, it's not just about one bad apple,
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is it. It points to bigger issues in the industry.
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Speaker 2: They get has to the source material highlighted this really
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daring statistic from twenty twenty three. Get this, over twenty
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percent of all biotech funding is going to companies to
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ventures that lack rigorous peer reviewed scientific data. One in five,
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one in five operating without that fundamental scientific proof. Think
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about the space that creates for fraudsters.
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Speaker 1: That's yeah, that's staggering. It creates fertile ground totally.
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Speaker 2: You've got this huge influx of cash, immense pressure to
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find the next big thing, and it allows someone charismatic,
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even if they're not a real scientist, to sell a
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dream based on marketing hype, not actual results. Camruka didn't
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just find that environment, he thrived in it.
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Speaker 1: And personally, behind the scenes was he cool.
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Speaker 2: And collected Apparently not people who knew him insiders, They
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mentioned increasing volatility, paranoia. He was constantly terrified at being exposed,
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that the whole illusion would shadow a fear, that deep
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seated fear, that paranoia, that's the toxic energy that ultimately
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drove his decisions. It led him straight from his Hollywood
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Hills mansion to a snurry roadside in Vermont.
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Speaker 1: And that's where this glamorous illusion tragically slams into the
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life of an ordinary man hashtag tag tashag three.
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Speaker 2: The victim and the ticking bomb motive.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so let's shift gears completely now from the glitz
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and fraud of La to this small, quiet town in Vermont, Danville,
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population barely over two thousand.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, tiny, And we really need to pause here and
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understand who the victim, Gregory Davis where Greg his friends
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called him, really was, because the contrast with Gumroku is
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just it's night and Day.
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Speaker 1: Tell us about him.
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Speaker 2: Greg Davis was, by all accounts, the absolute opposite of Gumroku.
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He was fifty one, a hard ware work guy, described
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as an every man, lived in Danville his whole life.
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It's scene. I have family, man, very much so, father
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of six with a seventh child actually on the way
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when all this happened. He ran a small logging business,
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just a solid community guy.
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Speaker 1: What did his wife say, Michelle.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Michelle Davis, she testified, painted this picture of him
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as a pillar of the community, coach little league, you know,
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the kind of neighborhood. Just show up and fix your
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roof if he saw it needed doing, wouldn't even ask.
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Speaker 1: Just a decent, hard working guy trying to provide exactly.
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Speaker 2: And it was that drive, that very understandable human desire
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to give his growing family financial security. That's what unfortunately
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led him into Gomruku's orbit back in twenty sixteen.
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Speaker 1: Through these oil deals.
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Speaker 2: Through those oil commodity deals. Yeah yeah, Gomrooki used his
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like international business facade to lure Davis in.
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Speaker 1: What was the pitch exactly?
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Speaker 2: It wasn't simple stuff. It involved these complex financial things
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Middle Eastern crude oil derivatives, Gomruk, who promised Davis he
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could make millions by basically flipping these contracts derivatives.
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Speaker 1: Okay for listeners who aren't you know Wall Street types,
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break that down. Why was that structure useful for the fraud?
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Speaker 2: Sure, so drivetive value comes from something else, right, in
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this case crude oil. But they're complicated for someone like Davis,
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not a finance pro. They're incredibly opaque arctract I see,
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and Gumruku used that complexity like a smoke screen. He
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didn't need to show actual barrels of oil or real
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shipping manifests. He could just produce fancy looking but ultimately
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forged documents and make constantly, Oh, there's a delay in
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the sUAS Canal, Oh, political instability in the Gulf. Always
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something plausible sounding to explain why the millions hadn't materialized.
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Speaker 1: Yet, And Davis bought it.
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Speaker 2: He did. He believed in the complexity, he believed in
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the potential returns, and probably he believed in the charismatic
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doctor sir hat. So he invested heavily, mortgage the family home,
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dipped into all their savings. He essentially bet everything his
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family's entire future on Gumruku's word, oh man. But it was,
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as the prosecution later laid out, just a classic Ponzi
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style scheme. There was no real oil supply chain, just
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fake paperwork and endless excuses, and eventually it collapsed, leaving
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Davis completely ruined, facing bankruptcy, losing the family home, with
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his wife pregnant. Just devastating.
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Speaker 1: I can't even imagine the desperation and anger he must
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have felt.
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Speaker 2: Exactly so, by mid twenty seventeen, Davis had had enough.
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He wasn't just going to walk away. He started threatening
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Gomrouka with a lawsuit for fraud.
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Speaker 1: Okay, a standard legal threat, but.
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Speaker 2: It went further, and this is the crucial part, the
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threat that really signed his death warrant. Davis didn't just
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threaten to sue. He threatened to go public with everything, everything,
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meaning not just the oil scam. Davis had apparently dug deeper.
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He had evidence, or claimed to have evidence about the
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whole sham. The fake Russian medical degree oh wow, the
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manipulated biotech data that in Nokian Biosciences was built on.
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He was threatening to expose the entire house of cards.
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Speaker 1: And the timing of this threat that was critical.
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Speaker 2: Wasn't it absolutely critical? This wasn't just random anger. Davis's
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threat landed squarely on Gomruku's desk just weeks before Enokiing
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was set to close this huge, multimillion dollar merger.
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Speaker 1: Deal, a deal that would make Gumruku personally very.
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Speaker 2: Rich tens of millions potentially, and any public scandal, especially
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something as concrete is proof of a fake medical degree
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or faked research data that would kill the deal instantly.
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Regulators would swarm in.
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Speaker 1: So Davis wasn't just an angry investor anymore.
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Speaker 2: No, in Gomruku's eyes, he became an existential threat. This
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hard working guy from small town Vermont, just trying to
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get his money back and expose the truth. He suddenly
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represented the single biggest obstacle to Gmuruku's fortune and freedom.
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Speaker 1: The ticking bomb.
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Speaker 2: That's exactly what the prosecution called him, a ticking bomb
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that needed to be diffused permanently. Gumruku's focus snapped from
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building his empire to protecting it by any means necessary,
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and that meant silencing Davis.
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Speaker 1: And this vulnerability. Davis being targeted like this it fits
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a broader pattern.
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Speaker 2: Unfortunately, it really does. The sources we looked at mentioned
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a twenty twenty four FBI report fairly recent showing a
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huge spike like thirty five percent and investment scams targeting
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people in rural areas.
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Speaker 1: Thirty five percent.
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Speaker 2: That's huge, it is, and often these scams originate from
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networks based in places like California, appearing legitimate, preying on
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people like Davis who are maybe less cynical, more trusting
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and looking for opportunities.
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Speaker 1: So these global complex schemes are just devastating ordinary lives
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in small towns exactly.
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Speaker 2: Davis's story is a tragic example of that. Gamuruku saw
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his life savings, his family security as just collateral damage
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in his game, and when Davis dared to fight back,
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he wasn't a person anymore. He was just a problem
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needing a final solution. Hashtag tag tag tag four v
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the mechanics of the murder for higher plot.
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Speaker 1: Okay, this is where it gets incredibly dark and frankly complex.
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Gmuruku decides Davis has to go, but he doesn't do
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it himself. He engineers this whole elaborate setup.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, this wasn't a crime of passion. It was cold
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calculated and designed specifically for one thing, deniability, maximum distance
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between him and the actual act.
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Speaker 1: The goal was simple, though clinically simple.
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Speaker 2: Leimone Greg Davis, protect the merger money.
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Speaker 1: So how did he structure it? You mentioned the Russian
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doll analogy earlier.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, investigators really lashed onto that he built this four
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layer conspiracy. Think of it like a chain of command,
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where each link adds insulation. The money flows down, the
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orders flow down, but the connection back up gets harder
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and harder to trace.
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Speaker 1: Let's walk through those layers. Layer one, Layer.
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Speaker 2: One, Sir hot Gumruku himself. Yeah, the brain, the bankroll.
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He's the one who initiates it all. He offers one
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hundred thousand dollars to solve the Davis problem.
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Speaker 1: One hundred thousand dollars.
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Speaker 2: And crucially, according to testimony, his instruction to the next
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guy in the chain was specific and chilling. Make it
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look like an accident, but make sure it's permanent.
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Speaker 1: Wow. So he's dictating the outcome but trying to keep
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his hands clean.
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Speaker 2: Precisely, he wants plausible deniability baked in from the start.
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Speaker 1: Okay, who's layer two? The first person in contacts.
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Speaker 2: That would be Burke Arata. He was described as Gmuruku's
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friend confidant, a thirty eight year old real estate developer
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based in La.
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Speaker 1: Real estate developer seems a bit random.
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Speaker 2: Well, investigators found Arite also had let's say connections ties
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to the Turkish underworld, apparently suggesting he might have had
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the capacity or the network for this kind of thing.
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Speaker 1: Ah okay, so he wasn't just some random friend likely not.
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Speaker 2: Arita took the money, took the instructions, He became the recruiter,
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and importantly, Arite later flipped. He cooperated with the prosecution
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and testified directly against Gummerku, detailing those make it permanent
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instructions in a row that was huge.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So Arita's layer two? Who does he recruit? Layer three?
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Speaker 2: Arita reaches out to a guy named Aaron Ethridge, forty
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five years old, a mechanic based down in Georgia.
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Speaker 1: Georgia, so we're already crossing state lines exactly.
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Speaker 2: Ethridge gets paid twenty thousand dollars of the original one
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hundred day his job find the actual hitman. Athredge had
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a minor criminal record, petty theft stuff like that. He
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seemed like the perfect expendable middleman.
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Speaker 1: And did Etherich cooperate too?
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Speaker 2: He did. Once caught, he cooperated and pointed the finger
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back up the chain to Arata, helping investigators connect Georgia
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back to La.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So Gumurku in La, pays Arite in La? Who
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pays Ethridge in Georgia? Who finds layer four?
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Speaker 2: Layer four? Jerry Banks? Yeah, the trigger man, thirty seven
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years old, described as a drifter from Alabama. Banks had
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a history of violent assaults. He was the end of
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the line, the guy willing to do the actual killing,
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and his cut pathetic really considering the crime just five
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thousand dollars up front with the promise of the rest
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once the job was done.
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Speaker 1: Okay, I get the layers for deniability, but isn't involving
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four people across four different states California and Georgia, Alabama,
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Vermont way more complicated and risky than just, I don't know,
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finding someone local in La.
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Speaker 2: That's a really sharp question. It seems counterintuitive, right, more people,
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more risk of someone talking. Yeah, But from Gomuruku's perspective,
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it was probably seen as g geographical risk mitigation. Think
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about it. If Banks gets caught in Vermont, his immediate
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connection is Ethridge down in Georgia. It's not a direct
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line back to Gomuruku sipping champagne in the Hollywood Hills.
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The different states create jurisdictional hurdles slow down the investigation.
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Speaker 1: It buys time, uh okay, using geography as another layer
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of insulation. Smart in a sinister way.
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Speaker 2: Very sinister. He probably figured the distance, the different state laws,
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the different FBI field offices involved, it would create enough
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confusion and delay for him to secure the merger money
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and maybe even disappear if needed.
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Speaker 1: So, despite all this complex planning, the execution itself January sixth,
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twenty eighteen, it happened.
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Speaker 2: Fast, chillingly fast and methodical. Banks rents an suv. He
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drives up to Danville, Vermont, and a key piece of
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evidence later found he'd bought those flashing emergency lights.
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Speaker 1: Like police use to look official.
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Speaker 2: Exactly the purchase was traced back a wire transfer from
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Ercount funded by Gmuruco. Banks rolls up to the Davis
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house pretending to be a US marshal.
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Speaker 1: Oh God.
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Speaker 2: He tells Greg Davis he needs to come with him
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for questioning about some kind of fraud.
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Speaker 1: Investigation, and Davis believed him. The irony is just unbearable.
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Speaker 2: It's heartbreaking. Davis thought he was finally getting held from
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law enforcement about the very fraud he was trying to expose.
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He thought this was progress.
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Speaker 1: What did his wife say about that moment?
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Speaker 2: Michelle Davis testified, Yeah, it was devastating, she said. Greg
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just kissed her goodbye, said something like I'll be right back.
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Totally casual. He walked out willingly with his own killer,
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believing he was doing the right thing. Banks drove him
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just a short distance away to this secluded snowy spot
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near Peacham, Vermont. Pulled off the road, forced him out
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of the car, and just executed him, execution style, shot
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him twice with a point two two caliber pistol, likely
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suppressed professional cold permanent, just like Camruco ordered.
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Speaker 1: And the confirmation. How did the chain work going.
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Speaker 2: Back up digital? Almost instantaneous. As soon as it was done,
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Banks sent a tech message to Ethrich. The code was simple, done,
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send the rest.
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Speaker 1: While this horror is happening in Vermont, Gomuruku is where
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back in.
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Speaker 2: LA monitoring the situation. Presumably the final payments were wired
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almost immediately, routed through complex offshore accounts to muddy the trail,
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and the very next day he's reportedly celebrating the progress
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on his big biotech merger. Business as usual, the.
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Speaker 1: Sheer callousness, it's hard to comprehend it is.
20:28
Speaker 2: And this whole model, you know, white collar criminals outsourcing violence,
20:31
especially over financial disputes. It's a trend.
20:34
Speaker 1: Unfortunately you mentioned a statistic earlier.
20:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, the US Sentencing Commission data suggests something like a
20:39
fifteen percent increase in these kinds of cases since around
20:42
twenty fifteen. When the money involved is huge millions from
20:45
a merger, the perceived cost of removing an obstacle can
20:49
seem in a warped way acceptable to someone like Gomroku.
20:53
Speaker 1: So the layers, the intermediaries, the geography, it was all
20:57
part of his final magic trick, misdirection on a lethal scale.
21:01
Speaker 2: Exactly hiding the real perpetrator behind smoke mirrors and state
21:05
lines hashtag tag tag v the unmasking in the reckoning.
21:09
Speaker 1: So Gumuruku thinks he's pulled it off. He's got his
21:11
layers as distance. But the plan started to unravel pretty quickly,
21:15
didn't it.
21:15
Speaker 2: It did Despite his careful planning, He underestimated the persistence
21:19
of law enforcement and crucially the power of digital forensics.
21:23
When the FBI first talked to him, Gamrouki played dumb.
21:26
Speaker 1: What was his story?
21:27
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, Davis was just a discarnold ex partner.
21:31
Maybe Davis got mixed up with some bad people over
21:33
some other deal. Total denial, trying to deflect.
21:35
Speaker 1: But the investigators weren't buying.
21:37
Speaker 2: It, not for a second. They started digging, and it
21:40
became this incredible exercise in connecting digital dots, tracing those
21:44
bread crumbs.
21:44
Speaker 1: What kind of bread crumbs are we talking about?
21:46
Speaker 2: It was about cross referencing everything. They found, those suspicious
21:49
bang transfers, right, money flowing from Gomuruku's accounts through shell companies,
21:54
eventually landing in accounts linked to Arita than Ethriche.
21:58
Speaker 1: But transfers alone don't murder exactly.
22:01
Speaker 2: The key was linking those financial transactions to communication and
22:05
location data burner phones used by Arita Ethridge banks, tracking
22:10
their movements, their calls, their texts.
22:12
Speaker 1: So what were the big breakthroughs the smoking guns?
22:15
Speaker 2: Two main things really blew it open. First, cell tower pings.
22:19
Arita's phone, which was almost always in La suddenly pinged
22:23
off towers near Danville, Vermont, just a few days before the.
22:26
Speaker 1: Murder, he was there doing recon.
22:28
Speaker 2: Looks like it recon maybe final planning. And crucially that
22:32
vermontt ping coincided almost exactly with a large wire transfer
22:35
from Gumruku to Arita. That ties the money to the
22:39
location at the critical time.
22:40
Speaker 1: Okay, that's big. What was the second thing?
22:42
Speaker 2: Physical evidence linked digitally? Remember those emergency lights Banks.
22:46
Speaker 1: Bought, Yeah, to pose as a marshal.
22:48
Speaker 2: Banks later pawned those lights in Alabama. Investigators recover them,
22:52
got the serial number, traced it back to the original
22:54
online purchase. Does we guess paid for by an account
22:57
linked directly to Arite? An account I did just received
23:00
funds from Gomruku. It created this undeniable chain, Gomrukhu's money,
23:06
arataelites used in the murder plot recovered from the hitman.
23:10
The digital trail lock it all together.
23:12
Speaker 1: Wow, it's like a spider web of.
23:14
Speaker 2: Data exactly, a painstaking process, connecting dots across four states,
23:18
multiple FBI offices, financial institutions. But they did it. By
23:22
twenty twenty two, they had everyone Airtate, Ethridge, Banks and
23:26
finally Gomruku.
23:28
Speaker 1: How did they arrest him? Quietly?
23:30
Speaker 2: Not exactly? It was apparently quite dramatic, A full swat
23:33
team raid on his big Hollywood Hills mansion. Pulled the
23:36
curtain down hard on the whole illusion of the untouchable.
23:39
Speaker 1: Genius and the trial itself. It was held back in Vermont.
23:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, Federal Court in Burlington, Vermont, which created this incredible
23:46
visual contrast. You know, you've got Gomuruku flown in, looking
23:50
sharp in his expensive la.
23:51
Speaker 1: Suits, mister Hollywood right.
23:54
Speaker 2: Standing trial in this quiet, somber New England courthouse facing
23:58
a jury of Vermonters, people who likely felt a connection
24:03
to Greg Davis, the victim. The setting itself was.
24:06
Speaker 1: Powerful and the prosecution's case.
24:08
Speaker 2: They hammered home the narrative of Gmuruku as this sociopathic shellman.
24:13
They didn't just focus on the murder mechanics, They tied
24:15
it directly back to the fraud, the fake credentials, the
24:18
whole charade.
24:18
Speaker 1: Did they have direct evidence of his intent, emails or anything?
24:22
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they presented emails Gemuruku had sent. In one
24:25
he apparently wrote something chillingly simple, Davis talks too much
24:29
time for silence.
24:31
Speaker 1: That's pretty damning, cuts right through any deniability.
24:33
Speaker 2: Absolutely hard to argue you were framed when you wrote
24:36
that the defense tried, of course, claimed Gebruku was the
24:39
real victim, framed by jealous associates trying to steal his
24:42
brilliant ideas.
24:43
Speaker 1: Standard defense playbook maybe.
24:44
Speaker 2: Pretty standard, but the evidence was just overwhelming. Over fifty
24:48
witnesses testified, laying out the financial scam, the layers of
24:52
the conspiracy.
24:53
Speaker 1: And the victim's wife, Michelle Davis. Her testimony must have been.
24:56
Speaker 2: Powerful, incredibly powerful, her account of Greg's last moments leaving
25:01
with Banks thinking he was helping the authorities. It made
25:05
the cold calculated nature of the crime devastatingly real for
25:08
the jury.
25:09
Speaker 1: And wasn't there a key piece of evidence from one
25:11
of the co conspirators, the middleman.
25:14
Speaker 2: Yes, Aeron Ethrich, the mechanic from Georgia. While he was
25:18
in jail awaiting trial, he made a phone call to Gumruku.
25:22
Speaker 1: He was recorded, and what did you say?
25:24
Speaker 2: He is basically begging Gomruku for money for his legal fees,
25:27
and in this moment of sheer desperation, he blurts out,
25:30
you got us into this mess with your big ideas.
25:33
Speaker 1: Wow.
25:33
Speaker 2: Direct link, directly linking Gomruku's big ideas the fraudulent schemes,
25:38
the ambition to the criminal conspiracy that landed them all
25:40
in jail. That recording was played for the jury devastating.
25:45
Speaker 1: So including the wire fraud charge alongside the murder charge
25:48
was key.
25:48
Speaker 2: It's strategically brilliant. It made it impossible for the defense
25:52
to isolate the murder, to pretend it happened in a vacuum.
25:55
The fraud was the motive. The jury saw the whole picture.
25:58
Speaker 1: How long did they deliberate?
25:59
Speaker 2: Not long, considering the complexity, about twelve hours. Then they
26:03
came back guilty on all counts, murder for higher conspiracy,
26:08
wire fraud.
26:08
Speaker 1: And the fallout for Anokian Biosciences for the industry.
26:12
Speaker 2: Immediate and catastrophic. For Anochian, the company essentially collapsed overnight.
26:17
Stock price plummeted like ninety percent, wiped out hundreds of
26:21
millions in investor value, proof the illusion vanished from the
26:24
truth hit.
26:25
Speaker 1: Did regulators react You mentioned concerns about biotech funding earlier?
26:28
Speaker 2: They did, the FDA, the SEC They definitely took notice.
26:31
They started ramping up scrutiny, especially on these high profile
26:34
charismatic founders, what some are calling celebrity scientists will kind
26:38
of change much stricter checks on credentials for one, no
26:41
more taking a fancy foreign degree at face value. They're
26:44
demanding more independent verification of academic backgrounds and crucially independent
26:50
third party vetting of the actual scientific data before big
26:53
funding rounds or mergers get approved.
26:55
Speaker 1: So forcing more rigor back into.
26:57
Speaker 2: The system trying to yes. This case was a brutal
27:01
wake up call about the potentially deadly consequences of valuing
27:04
charisma over actual, verifiable science.
27:08
Speaker 1: And amidst all this darkness, there's a legacy for the victim,
27:10
Greg Davis. Something positive there is.
27:13
Speaker 2: Thankfully his wife, Michelle Davis. She founded the Greg Davis Foundation.
27:17
Speaker 1: What does it do.
27:18
Speaker 2: It's dedicated specifically to helping other families who've been victims
27:21
of investment fraud, providing support resources, trying to prevent others
27:26
from going through what they did, And incredibly, it raised
27:28
something like half a million dollars in its first year alone.
27:31
Speaker 1: That's amazing, turning unimaginable grief into action.
27:35
Speaker 2: It really is creating something tangible and helpful out of
27:38
such a horrific situation. It's a powerful counterpoint to Gomuruku's
27:41
legacy of deceit.
27:43
Speaker 1: It brings to mind that quote you mentioned from the biotech.
27:45
Speaker 2: Ethicist Yeah Gamruka reminds us that cures start with truth,
27:49
not tricks. You just can't build anything lasting, especially something
27:53
meant to heal people, on a foundation of lies and violence.
27:56
It eventually crumbles hashtag tash tag six.
28:00
Speaker 1: So as we wrap up this deep dive, it really
28:02
comes down to the sheer audacity I guess of Sara
28:06
hut Gumuruku, this journey from stage magician in Turkey to
28:10
fake medical genius in La Yeah.
28:12
Speaker 2: Claiming he could cure HIV while behind the scenes arranging
28:15
an execution to protect his lives. The contrast is just jarring.
28:19
Speaker 1: And the sophistication of the plot itself, that Russian doll structure,
28:23
using layers of people, different states, all designed for perfect deniability.
28:27
Speaker 2: It shows a chillingly calculating mind. He genuinely thought his wealth,
28:31
his connections, his place in that high flying bitech world
28:34
put him above consequences.
28:35
Speaker 1: But ultimately it didn't work. And the tragedy of Gregory Davis,
28:39
the hard working guy from Vermont, just trying to do
28:41
right by his family, caught in the gears of this
28:43
massive global fraud.
28:45
Speaker 2: It's such a stark reminder, isn't it the real human
28:48
cost when corporate greed and deception go unchecked. His life
28:52
was destroyed to protect a lie.
28:53
Speaker 1: The ultimate irony too, the man who promised immortality through science.
28:58
His legacy is now just loss, fraud, and murder, brought
29:02
down by his own staggering hubris.
29:04
Speaker 2: So where does this leave us thinking about innovation, especially
29:08
in feels like biotech, where the stakes are so high
29:11
you need big investment, You need to take risks to get.
29:14
Speaker 1: Breakthrough, right, you need that ambition to some degree.
29:16
Speaker 2: But that very complexity, the highly specialized language, the promise
29:19
of huge returns, it creates this perfect environment for fraudsters,
29:24
people who can weave a convincing story even if the
29:27
science isn't there.
29:28
Speaker 1: It definitely leaves us what the heavy question, doesn't it
29:31
for you listening to think about? When we invest billions
29:34
in these high stakes fields? How do we tell the
29:36
difference between genuine, risky innovation and just charismatic fraud hiding
29:41
behind scientific jargon.
29:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, how do we balance supporting real breakthroughs with protecting
29:47
ourselves and people like Greg Davis from those who exploit
29:51
the system? If the pursuit of profit and prestige can
29:54
lead directly to murder, where do the ethical lines and
29:57
innovation even lie anymore?
30:00
Speaker 1: Lot to think about there. Thank you for joining us
30:02
on this really intense deep dive today.
30:04
Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning in.
30:05
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time.