https://en.encyclopedia.kz/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Zigzig20sKazakhstan Encyclopedia - User contributions [en]2026-07-03T17:16:22ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.23.15https://en.encyclopedia.kz/index.php/Tevfik_ArifTevfik Arif2017-04-11T17:25:00Z<p>Zigzig20s: updated infobox with RS</p>
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<div>{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Tevfik Arif<br />
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| birth_name = Tofic Arifov<br />
| birth_date = May 1953<br />
| birth_place = Cambul, [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic]]<br />
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| residence = [[Turkey]]<br/>[[Port Washington, New York]], U.S.<br />
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| occupation = Real estate developer, investor<br />
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| organization = [[Bayrock Group]]<br />
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'''Tevfik Arif''' (born May 1953) is a Kazakh real estate developer and investor. He is the founder of the [[Bayrock Group]].<br />
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==Early life and career==<br />
Tevfik Arif was born '''Tofic Arifov''' in Cambul in the [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic]] in May 1953.<ref name="Black Sea1">{{cite news|last1=Shaw|first1=Craig|last2=Sentek|first2=Zeynep|title=The Football Leaks Family 1: World leaders, mobsters, smoke and mirrors|url=http://theblacksea.eu/index.php?idT=88&idC=88&idRec=1278&recType=story|work=The Black Sea|date=20 December 2016}}</ref><ref name="Sorbello"/> He received an international relations degree from a Moscow university.<ref name="Black Sea1"/> Prior to the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], Arif worked for the USSR's Ministry of Commerce and Trade for 17 years. He served as the deputy director of its Department of Hotel Management.<ref name="NYDN">{{cite news|last1=Kates|first1=Brian|last2=Schapiro|first2=Rich|title=Trump pal busted for allegedly running hooker ring on yacht|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/trump-pal-busted-allegedly-running-hooker-ring-yacht-article-1.191136|work=NY Daily News|date=1 October 2010}}</ref> Arif resigned from the ministry in 1991 and founded Speciality Chemicals Trading Company, an export-import business trading in rare metals, chrome, and raw materials.<ref name="Black Sea1"/><ref name="FT2"/> He then worked as an "agent on the ground" in Kazakhstan for Trans World Group, a natural resources company run by [[David and Simon Reuben]].<ref name="Black Sea1"/><br />
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Arif moved to Turkey in 1993. He had owned the Turkish jewellery business Alset Dis Ticaret since 1979.<ref name="Black Sea1"/> In 1999, Arif partnered with the [[Rixos Hotels|Rixos]] hotel chain to open the Labada luxury hotel in [[Antalya]], Turkey.<ref name="FT">{{cite news|last1=Strauss|first1=Delphine|title=Turkish police hold 10 in Atatürk yacht raid|url=https://www.ft.com/content/2448b03a-cd77-11df-9c82-00144feab49a|work=Financial Times|date=1 October 2010}}</ref><br />
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Following the independence of Kazakhstan, Arif and his brother secured ownership of ACCP, a [[chromium]] plant in [[Aktobe]] that had headquarters in the [[British Virgin Islands]].<ref name="Sorbello">{{cite news|last1=Sorbello|first1=Paolo|title=Football Leaks: The Kazakh Connection|url=http://thediplomat.com/2017/01/football-leaks-the-kazakh-connection/|work=The Diplomat|date=3 January 2017}}</ref> The brothers developed ties to the Kazakh Trio — [[Alexander Mashkevitch]], [[Patokh Chodiev]], and [[Alijan Ibragimov]]. They later established offshore real estate companies to fund high-end developments in Kazakhstan, [[Azerbaijan]], and [[Turkey]].<ref name="Sorbello"/><br />
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==Later career==<br />
===Bayrock Group===<br />
In 2001, Arif moved some of his businesses to the United States<ref name="Sorbello"/> and founded the [[Bayrock Group]], a [[real estate development]] company. He began developing property in Brooklyn, first redeveloping Loehmann's Seaport Plaza, a waterfront shopping center in [[Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn|Sheepshead Bay]].<ref name="NYDN"/> Arif was originally the sole employee of Bayrock, later hiring [[Felix Sater]] as managing director.<ref name="FT2"/><br />
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After moving the Bayrock Group to [[Trump Tower]], Arif developed a relationship with billionaire businessman [[Donald Trump]]. Trump provided a licensing deal for the [[Trump SoHo]] hotel in a joint venture between the Bayrock Group and the [[Tamir Sapir|Sapir Organisation]].<ref name="Nance"/> In 2007, Bayrock traded future profits from Trump SoHo and other projects in exchange for $50 million in financing from Icelandic company [[FL Group]]. The arrangement led Bayrock's finance director to file racketeering lawsuits, alleging that money was diverted to people outside the company, including Salvatore Lauria, an associate of Sater's.<ref name="FT2"/><br />
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Trump and Bayrock later developed the [[Trump International Hotel and Tower (Fort Lauderdale)|Trump International Hotel and Tower]] in Fort Lauderdale. Arif also worked to introduce Trump to investors from Russia.<ref name="Nance">{{cite book|last1=Nance|first1=Malcolm|title=The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election|date=2016|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.|isbn=978-1-5107-2333-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XPZODQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT48&dq=%22Tevfik%20Arif%22&pg=PT48#v=onepage&q&f=false|language=en}}</ref> Through Bayrock, Arif collaborated with Trump on projects in Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Arizona, Colorado, New York, and Florida.<ref name="FT2">{{cite news|last1=Silverman|first1=Gary|title=US election: Trump’s Russian riddle|url=https://www.ft.com/content/549ddfaa-5fa5-11e6-b38c-7b39cbb1138a|work=Financial Times|date=14 August 2016}}</ref><br />
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==Personal life==<br />
Arif is believed to live in Turkey.<ref name="FT2"/> He owns a mansion in [[Port Washington, New York|Port Washington]].<ref name="politicothehappygolucky">{{cite news|last1=Schreckinger|first1=Ben|title=The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin|url=http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/the-happy-go-lucky-jewish-group-that-connects-trump-and-putin-215007|accessdate=April 11, 2017|work=Politico|date=April 9, 2017|quote=The Port Washington Chabad house has another Bayrock tie. Among its top 13 benefactors, its “Chai Circle,” as listed on its website, is Sater’s partner, Bayrock founder Tevfik Arif. Arif, a former Soviet bureaucrat turned wealthy real estate developer, owns a mansion in Port Washington, an upscale suburb, but he makes a curious patron for the town’s Chabad. A Kazakh-born citizen of Turkey with a Muslim name, Arif is not Jewish, according to people who have worked with him.}}</ref> Although he is not Jewish, he is one of the largest donors to the [[Chabad]] of Port Washington.<ref name="politicothehappygolucky"/><br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arif, Tevfik}}<br />
[[Category:1953 births]]<br />
[[Category:Living people]]<br />
[[Category:People from Port Washington, New York]]<br />
[[Category:Kazakhstani businesspeople]]<br />
[[Category:Kazakhstani emigrants to the United States]]</div>Zigzig20s