A New York real estate mogul with ties to Donald Trump is at the center of an international sex scandal - suspected of running a high-priced prostitution ring.

Tevfik Arif, 57, has been detained in Turkey on suspicion of setting up trysts between wealthy businessmen and Eastern European models - some underage - aboard a $60 million yacht once used by the nation's founder, Mustafa Ataturk.

Arif, whose Bayrock Group co-developed the Trump SoHo and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Fort Lauderdale, was among 10 people rounded up in Tuesday's raid on suspicion of running a prostitution ring.

Prosecutor Yusuf Hakki Dogan said the Savarona yacht was used twice for sexcapades, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported.

"This is the man who defiled the Savarona," read the headline on the cover of the Turkish paper Milliyet, beside a photo of Arif.

Ten models from Russia and Ukraine were detained, but one was released, Bloomberg News reported. Two of the women were underage.

The businessmen reportedly paid $3,000 to $10,000 per night to bed the women aboard the 450-foot yacht.

The luxury vessel, which boasts 16 suites, a 282-foot gold-trimmed grand staircase, a movie theater, Turkish bath and helicopter pad, was used by Ataturk before he died in 1938.

In 1989, Turkish businessman Kahraman Sadikoglu paid the government for the right to operate the yacht, which he reportedly rents out for $30,000 to $40,000 a day.

Russian, Kyrgyz and Kazakh businessmen and top government officials were also among those detained, Bloomberg News reported.

Last night, Arif was being questioned at a police station near the Mediterranean resort town of Antalya.

Antalya provincial spokesman Mahmut Deniz said there's been no decision on whether to press charges.

Arif is the victim of a "smear campaign" and will "vigorously defend himself in any court of law," his lawyer, Engin Agyuzlu, said in an email to Bloomberg News.

In addition to the Trump properties in New York and Florida, Arif's firm developed the Trump International Hotel and Tower Phoenix, the Waterpointe, a residential development in Whitestone, Queens, and the Riverhead Resorts in Suffolk County, L.I.

In an interview in 2007, Arif extolled the benefits of his relationship with The Donald.

"He's been very helpful to us from the beginning and he's been very helpful in opening some doors," Arif told Real Estate Weekly.

Photos from the 2007 launch party for the Trump SoHo Hotel show Trump and Arif palling around together. Arif was also photographed beside Trump and his three kids: Eric, Donald Jr., and Ivanka.

A spokeswoman for Trump declined to comment on his relationship with Arif.

A source said Trump hasn't spoken to Arif "in years."

The Kazakh-born Arif worked for the Ministry of Commerce and Trade in the former Soviet Union for 17 years, serving as the deputy director of its Department of Hotel Management, according to Real Estate Weekly.

After moving to the U.S., Arif's first project was the redevelopment of a 280,000 square-foot waterfront shopping center in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Loehmann's Seaport Plaza was sold in 2008 for a reported $24 million.

Arif founded Bayrock in 2001, which he operates out of an office on Fifth Ave.

"Bayrock knows nothing about the matter," said a spokeswoman for the firm.

Arif owns a three-story mansion in Port Washington, L.I., worth more than $6 million, records show.

In recent years, Bayrock has been the target of multiple lawsuits.

In suits filed in New York and Delaware, former Bayrock finance director Jody Kriss claims that the firm defrauded the IRS and embezzled millions from its subsidiaries.

In a separate lawsuit filed in August in Manhattan Federal Court, 15 buyers of the Trump SoHo Hotel sued Arif, Trump, his children, and Arif's partner, Alex Sapir, charging they had inflated sales in their marketing pitches to encourage them to buy into the condo.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/10/01/2010-10-01_donald_trump_pal_tevfik_arif_busted_in_turkey_for_allegedly_running_hooker_ring_.html#ixzz11sLFLgDt

None of my friends run prostitution rings.

LOL Honestly I could care less about a woman selling her body and men helping her facilitate that. I could see if he was a drug dealer. But honestly, If we cant tell a woman she cant terminate her own pregnancy, how do we get off telling her she cant charge men to have sex? It's ridiculous.

Like Trump knew what this guys was doing, he was an which is a lot less then William Ayers and Tony Rezko(A Domestic Terrorist and a political fixer) are to Obama.

Bummer when this sort of thing happens...puts us working gals in the unemployment line ya know

personally, there are alot of crimes (drug dealing, body selling, ) which I dont think should be illegal

but it is interesting to see how this.....

'Photos from the 2007 launch party for the Trump SoHo Hotel show Trump and Arif palling around together. Arif was also photographed beside Trump and his three kids: Eric, Donald Jr., and Ivanka.

A spokeswoman for Trump declined to comment on his relationship with Arif.

A source said Trump hasn't spoken to Arif "in years."



is any less proof of a connection than what they spout off about OBama and Ayers

they worked together, they 'HELPED' each other , and in business deals where there is usually much more choice than who is assigned to a board or committee with someone,,,

Anyone in politics or high up there like that has some scandal behind them. That's why attacking a persons actions won't solve anything. Focusing on the voting history and past political positions of the person is a much better way to determine a person's political agenda and moral. Just because the guy runs a prostitution ring doesn't mean he is a bad guy or any less of a father. He is a business man. Wrong or right.

I agree, I am no fan at all of the guilt by association political campaigns or the smear tactics

be nice if politicians could just tell us why THEY are good candidates instead of focusing so much on why someone else isnt

and I would much more like to hear about things relevant to their JOB than their personal lives too

If someone associates with a terrorist I wanna know about it, if they have an affair or ger a pro who gives a flying F(as long as they don't commit a crime covering it up or purjury).

to each their own, I suppose all the philanthropists who have worked with him in the nineties to secure funds for education should be forever'suspect' due to his actions in the seventies,,,

well, I just pray that people arent ever held to such far reaching judgments that they hold others to...

The problem with Ayers is he still supports what he did, and said he should have made and planted more bombs! He and his wife were on the FBI's top 10 list and the Weatherman group and all of it's members past and present are STILL on the domestic terrorism list, just at the bottom because they arn't considered as big of a threat as AQ, TTP, Taliban. AQAP, ALF, ELF etc.

where can I see the domestic terrorism list you speak of?

none of that was enough to keep him from being employed by a UNIVERSITY, in a city where Obama chose to reside and work and , in doing so, came to 'associate' (serve on a board with and visit his home once)with Ayers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glb2U6y-GdU&ob=av3e

Weatherman was referred to in its own time and afterwards as "terrorist." The group fell under the auspices of FBI-New York City Police Anti Terrorist Task Force, a forerunner of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The FBI, on its website, describes the organization as a "domestic terrorist group," but no longer an active concern.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_Underground

So the basic defense from the right, that "the left is corrupt too, so it's ok to be a corrupt individual". I see.

LOL no, I am not saying that. I personally know a career prostitute and she is a great chic, you would never even know that she even does that. In fact she even has her own business now too so I don't even think she does that anymore. Thing is, by your last statement you are assuming that I am corrupt AND that she is a corrupt individual. I can promise you she is not, she has been one of my most dependable and trusted friends. And I can also promise you that despite my strong political views I am a very nice and sound individual. Seems on around here that people dislike other's with different political views. Thing is I don't dislike anyone. I just like debate thats all. Why do things have to become so dire and extreme?

I just don't buy the whole idea that if you are friends with people who make mistakes that somehow that reflects poorly on you. Unless you are one of those elite snob types that only associates with other elite.

I know several personally. There are like 8-10 brothels within 10 minutes of my house. When I managed the local Sears they would come in for stuff for their rooms or Dennis Hoff would come in. Most of them are really nice, he is an arrogant SOB.

It was pretty funny because all the male employees would fight over who got to help them LOL. Some were on the tv show Cathouse(I've never seen it, just heard about it).

I will tell you this, when you see Air Force Amy up glose you definately need beer goggles.

Yea I am starting to see that........ It's sad when people are so close minded.

I agree