Disclosed: How Tevfik Arif and Bayrock Group Became Connected to Donald Trump

(Photo : Disclosed: How Tevfik Arif and Bayrock Group Became Connected to Donald Trump)

Bayrock Group and its founder, Tevfik Arif, have been targets of multiple conspiracy theories involving Donald Trump that have all proven to be false.

Over the years, Tevfik Arif, who is the founder of the real estate development firm Bayrock Group, and the American president, Donald Trump, have been subjects of many conspiracy theories.

Some of these have tried to use Tevfik Arif's background as a former Soviet citizen to connect Donald Trump to Russia. Others claim that the Bayrock Group founder and the American President have developed personal relations, but there is no evidence to support any of these allegations.

While the two are no longer in contact, their relationship was one of mutual business interests.

It all started when Tevfik Arif founded Bayrock Group in New York City in 2001. One of the company's first projects was renovating Loehmann's Seaport Plaza, a shopping center in the Sheepshead Bay area of Brooklyn.

Having successfully executed a number of constructions of that caliber, Tevfik Arif and Bayrock Group grew increasingly ambitious and began looking for larger developments.

With the ambition to aim higher, the company also wanted to relocate its New York City offices to a more glamorous location, and this is where Donald Trump came into the picture.

Bayrock Group moved to the 24th floor of the Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, which was the most prestigious real estate market in the city.

The relocation brought Tevfik Arif and his team into close proximity to the Trump Organization, which had its offices in the same building.

The two companies quickly showed interest in doing business with each other, and the Trump SoHo condo-hotel was the result.

The 46-story building was completed in 2008 with apartments, hotel rooms, premium restaurants and bars, an outdoor pool, an outstanding spa, a banquet and event halls.

The fact that the luxury construction was named Trump was no coincidence. Tevfik Arif acknowledged that the Trump brand was very powerful, so Bayrock Group presented a strategy that would leverage the Trump name to add value and prestige to the project it was developing with the Sapir Organization.

The deal was signed by all three parties, leaving the Trump Organization with 18% equity in the luxury condo-hotel in exchange for using the Trump name in the project. 

Additional projects by Bayrock Group and the Trump Organization

The success of the Trump SoHo construction whetted the appetite of Bayrock Group and the Trump Organization who started to explore the possibility of further real estate development projects in Arizona and Florida under the same licensing terms.

The negotiations took place in 2008, but the financial crisis that hit the American real estate market at that time meant that the constructions were shelved.

While Tevfik Arif and Bayrock Group were active in the United States, the firm invested in real estate assets valued at more than $2.5 billion. However, the company has not pursued any new American business ventures in recent years.

As Tevfik Arif and Donald Trump's dreams of additional luxury buildings were not realized, their relations petered out.

Tevfik Arif's rise to fame

Tevfik Arif's road to the United States began in the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan where he was born in 1953.

He grew up living with his parents of Turkish descent and his three brothers.

As Tevfik Arif became a young man, he got a degree in International Relations from the Moscow Trade and Economic Institute and subsequently accepted a job in the Soviet Ministry of Commerce and Trade.

During the time he worked for the government, Tevfik Arif rose to the position of deputy head of the Ministry's Hotel Management Department.

After 17 years of service, Tevfik Arif left the public sector to start his own business in a time of industry privatization that followed the fall of the Soviet Union.

His interest in hotels and luxury real estate developments stuck with him and became vital parts of his newly established business venture. Apart from those two fields, he dealt with imports, exports, automobiles and food as well as natural resources and minerals in the following decades.

His extensive network of international partners from his companies enabled Tevfik Arif to seek new ventures. In 1993, he moved to Turkey where he started investing in the tourism industry and real estate.

By using his experience and knowledge from his time working in Soviet Kazakhstan's Hotel Management Department, Tevfik Arif became a frontrunner when it came to all-inclusive resorts in Turkey. One of his first projects of that kind was the Labada luxury hotel in Antalya.

In the following years, Tevfik Arif expanded his businesses to operate in Europe and Central Asia, before he began focusing on the United States.

Today, Tevfik Arif has retired from the day-to-day running of Bayrock Group, but he is still a trusted and key strategic advisor to the company.