“Dr. Oz owns an undisclosed apartment in New Jersey”

“Dr. Oz owns an undisclosed apartment in New Jersey”
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The condo houses Armenian Genocide deniers, says the Daily Beast

The celebrity TV host-turned-political candidate Mehmet Oz’s senate run has been mired with controversy since its inception. In the latest turn of events, the Daily Beast claimed that Dr. Oz owned an undisclosed condo in Fairview, New Jersey. The report stated that the unit’s property tax bill was sent to Dr. Oz’s mansion as recently as this year. But Oz did not list the apartment in a detailed disclosure he made in April as a candidate for the US Senate.

Candidates are not obligated to report real estate holdings that do not produce revenue—but Oz did so for his other non-revenue producing properties, including the Cliffside Park address, his new home in Pennsylvania, and his residential holdings in Turkey, where the former daytime TV host’s parents were born. It was impossible to ascertain whether Oz received rent payments from the condo, as neither he nor his tenants replied to repeated requests for comment.

The Daily Beast reported that Dr. Oz’s undisclosed condo housed two longtime friends of his. These people, the Kacaroglus, are deeply involved in “Turkish national activism and connected to groups that have fought to prevent the United States from recognizing the extermination of Armenians on Turkish territory during World War 1,” according to the exclusive.

The Daily Beast highlighted social media posts shared by Necmiye Kacaroglu, who listed the condo as her personal address. The posts she shared perpetuated the stance of the Turkish government and blamed Armenians for the killing of Turkish soldiers during the period. She shared articles complaining about Armenian demands for Turkish recognition of war crimes committed against them.

Kacaroglu also had ties with the American Turkish Society – a group that refused to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and supported academics who promoted the Turkish government’s version of events.

The Daily Beast stated that they reached out to Dr. Oz and the Kacaroglus for comment but did not receive any replies. Another question posed in the exclusive is whether Dr. Oz donated money to any of the Turkish nationalist groups with which Kacaroglu was related or supported them in any other way.

On the legal implications of failing to disclose the condo, “candidates who deliberately do not report a source of income in their disclosures are subject to a $50,000 fine and further civil penalties,” the article stated.

If Oz is simply allowing them to stay in the residence free of charge, he would have violated no rules and would face no consequences, said Delaney Marsco, senior legal counsel for ethics at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center.

But whether officially or unofficially, the discovery of the undisclosed condo is sure to spell trouble for Dr. Oz. His Pennsylvania Senate bid is already on rocky ground due to him only registering to vote in the state back in 2020. Dr. Oz was a New Jersey resident for almost two decades before that.

His out-of-state ties have been a point of criticism by his Democratic rival Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. Fetterman goes after Dr. Oz through memes, social media posts, and even montaged videos. He is sure to pick up on this latest revelation.

Dr. Oz’s relationship with Turkey is also a point of contention. He has Turkish citizenship, he served in the military and he voted in general elections. His critics claim that his ties to Turkey would compromise him as a US Senator. Dr. Oz vowed to renounce his Turkish citizenship if elected in November.