# Bayrock Group A New York real-estate developer founded in 2001 by Tevfik Arif, a former Soviet trade official from [[Kazakhstan]], and headquartered in Trump Tower. With [[Felix Sater]] as its managing director, Bayrock was Trump's main partner in licensing his name to buildings in 2005–2010 — the years when post-Soviet money went looking for American brands. It is the pipeline that runs from Trump SoHo to [[Trump Tower Moscow]]. ## The people - **Tevfik Arif** — born in Kazakhstan, 17 years at the Soviet Ministry of Commerce and Trade, later ran a chrome plant before founding Bayrock. Arrested in 2010 in a prostitution case on a yacht off Turkey; acquitted in 2011. - **[[Felix Sater]]** — joined in 2003. He had served 15 months for a 1991 bar stabbing and pleaded guilty in 1998 to a $40 million Mafia-linked stock fraud, after which he became an FBI informant. In 2010 he carried Trump Organization business cards reading "Senior Advisor to Donald Trump." ## The Trump deals | Years | Project | |---|---| | From 2005 | Moscow tower attempts; Sater says he escorted [[Ivanka Trump]] and [[Donald Trump Jr.]] to Moscow in 2006 | | 2005–07 | Licensing deals in Fort Lauderdale and Phoenix | | 2006–2010 | **Trump SoHo**, announced on *The Apprentice* with Bayrock and the Sapir Organization; a $450 million hotel-condo in which Trump took a stake (reported as 15–18%) for his name and management, not capital | | 2007 | Icelandic firm FL Group puts **$50 million** into Bayrock; a lawsuit later alleged it was reclassified from equity to a loan to avoid about $20 million in taxes | Trump SoHo was later renamed The Dominick after the Trump Organization exited in 2017. ## Trump under oath In a December 2007 deposition Trump said he dealt "very little" with Sater and "mostly with Tevfik." In 2013 he testified, "I really wouldn't know what he looked like." The business cards, the office in Trump Tower, and Sater's 2015 email to [[Michael Cohen]] about Trump Tower Moscow — "our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it" — are the record against that distance. ## The lawsuits - **Kriss v. Bayrock.** Former executive Jody Kriss sued in 2010, alleging money laundering, tax evasion and concealment of Sater's criminal record. The parties agreed to settle in February 2018. - **City of Almaty & BTA Bank v. Sater.** Kazakh plaintiffs alleged Sater helped launder stolen funds through U.S. real estate, including Trump SoHo condos. A 2024 jury award of more than $32 million was set aside for a new trial; the October 2025 retrial produced **$52 million in damages plus more than $50 million in interest**. ## See Also - [[Felix Sater]] · [[Trump Tower Moscow]] · [[Trump Organization]] - [[Michael Cohen]] · [[Donald Trump Jr.]] · [[Ivanka Trump]] - [[Kompromat]] · [[Offshore Financial Secrecy]]