A co-owner of the Brooklyn construction company being scrutinized by the feds as part of a larger probe into Mayor Eric Adams’ fundraising has long flaunted a lavish, jet-setting lifestyle.
Erden Arkan, the globe-trotting 74-year-old owner of KSK Construction Group in Williamsburg, regularly posts dispatches with his wife Itir on social media from fancy locations around the world, including snapshots of their March vacation in Osaka, Japan; scenes of hot air balloons floating in the sky above Cappadocia, Turkey; and souvenir shanties on Greece’s Chios Island.
“#Theking #andhisserf,” Itir, 73, cooed on Instagram in June 2022, while posting a photo of her hubby regally sitting on a chair-shaped marble boulder during their visit to the archaeological site of Aphrodisia in Turkey.
In 2020, the couple forked over $2.1 million for a 6th-floor, 1,193-square-foot apartment in the high-rise condo at 570 Broome Street, which his company constructed and whose higher-profile residents include “Jersey Shore” star Vinny Guadagnino.
They also own a swanky, one-bedroom condo at the Forty2East luxury apartment complex in Williamsburg that they purchased in 2016 for $865,000 and are now renting for $4,200 monthly, records show.
Itir is a former teacher at Marymount School of New York, a tony private Catholic school for girls on the Upper East Side where tuition runs $60,375 a year.
The couple have two daughters: Gunce, 47, and Canem, 43.
Former investment banker Canem was married in 2010 to William Cawthon, a University of Arkansas business school lecturer.
The gala ceremony was held at The Palms in Turks and Caicos, a five-star luxury resort where rooms run on average $1,065 a night and guests are just a stone’s throw from Grace Bay Beach.
The ceremony site was decorated with Calla lilies, orchids and a variety of West Indies flowers. The bride wore an ivory one-shoulder gown by Peter Langer and an ivory veil edged with lace.
Gunce has business degrees from both Harvard University and Stanford University and is chief revenue officer of OmieLife, a company that makes bento lunch boxes, according to LinkedIn.
She and her husband own a condo at Carnegie Park on the Upper East Side.
Arkan’s company, KSK, is an offshoot Brooklyn firm another he and his current business partners – including Ulgur Aydim — also ran called KiSKA Construction Corporation.
KSK specializes in hotel and condo development and boasts constructing more than 40 projects on its website – including The Stores at Fulton Mall hotel in Brooklyn and the Hilton Garden Inn in Queens.
It also has more than 30 jobs in the pipeline citywide.
On Thursday, federal agents raided the Crown Heights home of top Adams campaign fundraiser Briana Suggs.
Law enforcement sources told The Post agents were looking for evidence that could show whether Hizzoner’s team conspired with KSK and the Turkish government to use “straw donors” to illegally funnel foreign cash into his campaign coffers in exchange for favors.
A straw donor is a person or company which illegally makes a donation with someone else’s money but using their own name to hide its source.
“The mayor of New York City is one of the most powerful people in the world. And they have a direct line to White House, leaders in Congress, and Wall Street…If you’re the Turkish government, that’s someone you want to be friends with to get ahead on the world stage,” said one Dem strategist.
Turkey-born Erden Arkan donated $1,500 to Adams’ campaign in 2021 and also held fundraiser that May which netted nearly another $70,000 towards the mayor’s war chest, records show.
Neither KSK, Arkan, Adams, Suggs or anyone else have been charged with any wrongdoing, and the mayor has tried to downplay the FBI raid — saying Friday he still has “full confidence” in the young political operative caught up in the possible foreign election interference.
“Where’s there’s smoke, there’s not always fire,” Adams told Dan Mannarino on PIX11 in his first sitdown since the raid on Suggs’ home.
On Saturday, Hizzoner refused to talk to reporters about the probe. He was heavily guarded by his security detail and staff.
While walking into an event at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, Adams smiled at reporters while an operative told media members, “Thank you for your questions, we’re not taking questions.” “We appreciate your questions.”
Adams, who has done plenty of traveling to Turkey — he recently estimated at least six times — both as mayor and Brooklyn borough president, followed the lead of former Beep Marty Markowitz, who regularly traveled there to promote the borough.
Brooklyn has a large Turkish population, concentrated mostly in neighborhoods including Brighton Beach, Midwood and Sheepshead Bay.
Markowitz, who received $2,250 in donations in 2005 from Arkan and his family, said Saturday he recalls KiSKA doing fundraising for him but doesn’t remember Arkan.
“Kiska was well known in the Turkish community, but my interaction was minimal at best,” he said.
Markowitz also predicted other pols will mull challenging the mayor in the 2025 election but believes they’re better off “saving their money.”
“He speaks for a large part of the city in terms of his political base being of relative moderation, so I don’t know how successful [any challenger] would be against him,” he said.
Arkan did not return messages Saturday and a doorman at his building kicked a Post reporter out after she asked for him.
No comments:
Post a Comment