Inside the alleged Adams straw donor event that launched Turkish ‘CEO Club’

One of the straw donor schemes described in the federal indictment of Mayor Eric Adams was in fact a bid by a pair of Turkish-American media operators to launch a social club – according to one of the businessmen who put up cash for the campaign as part of the deal.

Among many other alleged misdeeds, the 57-page federal indictment accuses Adams of plotting with two of his aides and an unnamed “Turkish-American public relations representative” and “the publisher of a magazine targeted at Turkish-Americans.” They allegedly planned to smuggle oversized donations from their deep-pocketed contacts into his campaign around an Oct. 9, 2023 event where Adams appeared, illegally disguising the contributions from multiple straw donors. Both the PR rep and the magazine publisher are associates of a Reyhan Özgur, the Turkish official who matches the description of the diplomat prosecutors say courted and capitalized on Adams’ loyalty.

The New York Times has identified the publisher as Cemil Ozyurt, co-founder of the quarterly journal Turk of America Magazine. And City & State can now report the PR rep is Jimmy Cuneyt Gurkan, who runs In212 Productions – and who, like Adams, featured in the 2017 Turkish-language romantic comedy “Masali New York.”

Turkish Americans supports ERIC ADAMS in New York Mayoral race. #TurkishAmericansSupportEricAdams @BKBoroHall @ericadamsfornyc #ericadams #newyork #NYCMayor #NYCMayoralRace pic.twitter.com/2bCe0NbYpX

— Jimmy Cuneyt Gurkan (@JimmyCuneyt) June 21, 2021

The Oct 9. affair raised both money and eyebrows, as the Daily News revealed in February that Adams’ campaign had failed to properly report the event and the event organizer who helped the team amass thousands of dollars. 

But City & State uncovered new details about the nature of the event, how it was marketed, and the ambitions of its organizers – as well as their longstanding relationships with Adams and with the network of Turkish interests entangled in the indictment.

“Basically, they said they needed a certain amount of money for the mayor to show up”

The gathering last fall wasn’t billed as a fundraiser, but rather as the launch of “CEO Club New York,” a membership-based “dynamic ecosystem where C-level executives collaboratively elevate the quality and profitability of their organizations through shared experiences and personal development.” 

And the host of the party, identified in the indictment as “Businessman-6,” the “owner of a logistics company,” was a man named Eyup “Peter” Ulu. Ulu confirmed to City & State that Ozyurt and Gurkan indicated to him that the tens of thousands of dollars he and others in attendance funneled to the campaign was effectively an appearance fee the mayor demanded.

“Basically, they said they needed a certain amount of money for the mayor to show up,” said Ulu, who owns the company PortX and let Ozyurt and Gurkan use space in a complex where he rents in Weehawken, New Jersey. “They are trying to use him as an advertisement so they can have more members or something.”

Ulu said that Ozyurt and Gurkan stopped taking his phone calls months ago, which he attributed to the Daily News article.

Neither the mayor’s attorneys nor City Hall responded to repeated questions on these points.

Ulu told City & State he met the publicist and the publisher while raising money for earthquake relief for Turkey earlier in 2023. He said he agreed to the scheme as a favor to Gurkan and Ozyurt, and stressed that he regretted it – asserting he has no business in New York and no political interests.

“We were trying to help them, not the mayor,” Ulu maintained. “They wanted to open up something, they want to make money.”

Gurkan’s LinkedIn page shows he had used the “CEO Club” branding on a few occasions prior to the 2023 party, but the organization’s website identifies the October event as the night “CEO Club was Established with the Participation of New York Mayor Eric Adams.” A video uploaded months later to CEO Club’s YouTube page features the mayor’s remarks as a voiceover.

“The dream is not a reality if you believe you're supposed to leave your culture behind. You bring the uniqueness of your experience of growing up in your homeland as you come in your adopted land,” Adams says over a mounting string and piano score and a display of images from the evening – including of himself posing for photos with Gurkan, Ozyurt and Ulu. "Every group who decides to come to this country, they climb up the mountain one hand at a time. You look under the fingernails of every group you'll see the dirt and grime of climbing up that mountain of opportunity.”

The video is entitled “New York Mayor opened the Turkish initiative CEO Club.”

The CEO Club network: Turkish Airlines, the Turkevi Center, Turkish Philanthropy Funds

The CEO Club website shows it shares a Manhattan address with JustEnglish, a language school Gurkan runs, and a number also listed for Gurkan’s In212 Productions PR agency. The individual who answered the phone at that number, however, insisted he was not Gurkan but would not provide his name. The Whatsapp account attached to the phone has Gurkan’s photo, but he did not respond to queries sent over the messaging service. 

Repeated attempts to reach Ozyurt, including at Turk of America, proved unsuccessful. A woman who picked up at one number associated with him identified herself as his wife and promised to pass along a message, but no return call resulted.

The subsequent CEO Club event was a diplomat-studded gathering celebrating the 100th birthday of late Azerbaijani despot Heydar Aliyev, which Özgur attended. Azerbaijan and Turkey are close geopolitical and economic allies. In September, it was slated to hold a business conference co-sponsored by Turkish Airlines, the partially state-owned transport company at the heart of the bribery allegations against Adams.

However, an individual invited to appear at this event told City & State that it was canceled.

Ulu claimed he had not spoken to the feds, who allege he and Adams discussed a plan at the party to move additional funds to his campaign in the names of PortX drivers. The proposal allegedly fell apart after the FBI raided the home of Adams’ fundraiser Brianna Suggs.

Ulu claimed that neither Özgur nor any other Turkish government officials attended the CEO Club kickoff.

However, the indictment says “the Turkish official” – that is, the one who matches the description of the consul Özgur – was aware of it. The indictment refers to Gurkan and Ozyurt as Özgur’s “associates.” A June 2021 post on Ozyurt’s Instagram shows he hosted a party for Özgur and another Turkish diplomat – which Gurkan also attended. Gurkan has promoted and attended other diplomatic events featuring Özgur in recent years.

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A post shared by Cemil Ozyurt (@cemilozyurt)

Gurkan’s firm In212 Productions, meanwhile, has participated in multiple “travel showcases” at the Turkevi Center – the Turkish consular compound that Adams allegedly leaned on former FDNY Chief Daniel Nigro to grant a temporary certificate of occupancy. In212’s webpage includes among its clients not just Turkish Airlines but Herrick Feinstein, the law firm that represented the Turkish government through the Turkevi Center’s planning and construction.

The duo’s connection to Adams goes back years, as Gurkan’s LinkedIn attests.

Ozyurt and Gurkan bestowed an “American Friends of Turkey” award on then-Borough President Adams at a 2018 event also co-sponsored by Turkish Airlines. Adams had appeared at a previous award event the two hosted three years prior.

A patron of both gatherings was Turkish Philanthropy Funds, an organization co-founded by Murat Agirnasli, another Adams donor with business ties to KSK Construction, which allegedly ran a separate straw donor scheme described in the indictment.