A Turkish-tied organization that launched in 2023 with an alleged straw-donor fundraiser for former New York City Mayor Eric Adams has spent recent weeks selling tickets for a Sept. 20 gathering listing Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) as a “featured speaker ” — even as Zinke’s office insists he’s not attending the event.

The CEO Club New York and Turkish-American Business Association have posted materials online and created a listing on Eventbrite advertising the “World Business Summit New York & Award Ceremony 2026,” to take place at a venue inside The New York Times building during the U.N. General Assembly next month. Prominently displayed is the name and photo of the retiring Montana congressman, who served as secretary of the interior during the first Trump administration.

“We’re bringing together global business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, and decision makers for a day of meaningful conversations, networking, and collaboration,” CEO Club Founder Jimmy Cuneyt Gurkan wrote on LinkedIn, adding that Zinke was “already confirmed” to appear along with a roster of private sector guests.

Previous reporting has identified Cuneyt Gurkan as the unnamed, unindicted “public relations representative” in the criminal complaint against Adams who plotted to illegally funnel large amounts of money from a Turkish-American businessman into the then-mayor’s later-aborted reelection campaign — and the CEO Club’s inaugural gathering in October 2023 has been identified as the event used to mask the donations as lawful gifts from attendees. 

Prosecutors described the “public relations representative” as an associate of a “Turkish official” who directed foreign money into Adams’ campaign coffers and arranged perks from state-owned Turkish Airlines in exchange for favorable treatment.

The New York Times and other publications have outed that official as Reyhan Özgür, the former Turkish consul general. The indictment states that Özgür and a Turkish Airlines official shared a donation link for the 2023 CEO Club event.

Cuneyt Gurkan and the CEO Club did not respond to repeated inquiries for this story. The Times Center, the event space in the paper’s Manhattan headquarters, told Jewish Insider that it has “been in touch with” the CEO Club about using the space in the 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. slot listed in the promotions but does not yet have a contract in place.

But, after initially avoiding answering questions about whether Zinke would attend the event, the congressman’s team told JI that he will not be there. Asked if the congressman had ever intended to participate in the event, and if he will be in New York City on that date, his office would only answer that it was never on his official schedule and that his House staff never interacted with the CEO Club.

Zinke has a mixed history with Turkey — but has had past contact with the network allegedly involved in the Adams bribery scheme. Foreign Agent Registration Act filings show that as a congressman he has had contact with lobbyists for Turkey’s government and ruling political party both before joining the first Trump administration and since returning to the Hill. 

As interior secretary, Zinke came under fire from ethics watchdogs in 2018 for bringing an official security team on a vacation to Turkey, a trip that also included a stop in Greece.

While that controversy received broad coverage, few U.S. outlets reported that Zinke’s wife — who had previously lived in Turkey — received an award from Turk of America magazine and TOA Consulting. Turk of America’s publisher was Cuneyt Gurkan’s co-conspirator in the CEO Club’s straw-donor scheme for Adams, while Cuneyt Gurkan at the time served as TOA Consulting’s chief operating officer, according to LinkedIn and media appearances.

Personally presenting the award to Lola Zinke was another key figure in the Adams scandal: Turkish Airlines executive Cenk Ocal. Cuneyt Gurkan took a selfie with the interior secretary at the event, and the secretary lauded the U.S. partnership with Turkey.

“Certainly, they’re regional and strategic partners, and the people of the United States and Turkey, they love each other, as shown here,” video posted to YouTube shows Zinke saying. “Look at our mutual values and our core strengths, and it’s about the people, that there’s a long-time bond and a relationship between the Turkish people and the United States.”

Just months later, however, the Republican was briefly the target of retaliatory Turkish sanctions after the U.S. sought to penalize the Mediterranean nation for detaining an American pastor. Experts attributed the move against Zinke to confusion by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the U.S. Department of the Interior’s remit, as a similarly named ministry in Ankara handles domestic security.

Back in Congress, Zinke — who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee — has coupled praise for Turkey as a NATO ally with concern about Ankara’s support for Hamas. In a markup session last fall, he opposed an amendment that would compel consideration of Israeli military advantage when making arms sales to the country, a standard applied to all other Middle Eastern countries.