Overview:
Federal authorities are investigating Mayor Eric Adams for allegedly accepting bribes from overseas nationals throughout his marketing campaign, which can violate federal legal guidelines concerning overseas affect in U.S. elections. Adams has denied the allegations, claiming they’re politically motivated.
By Greg B. Smith, Yoav Gonen and Gwynne Hogan
This text was initially revealed on Sept. 26, 2024, 11:51 a.m. EDT by THE CITY
Manhattan U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams on Thursday unsealed a 57-page indictment that accuses Mayor Eric Adams of performing favors for Turkish foreign nationals after accepting greater than $100,000 in lavish worldwide aircraft tickets and lodging, in addition to soliciting unlawful donations from them.
These donations in flip generated public matching funds for his 2021 mayoral marketing campaign — a part of a $10 million pot of presidency {dollars}.
The five-count indictment of Adams, the primary mayor of New York Metropolis to ever be charged with a criminal offense whereas in workplace, consists of allegations in opposition to him of wire fraud, bribery and receiving contributions from overseas nationals that he knew to be unlawful, in accordance with prosecutors.
At a press convention saying the indictment Thursday morning, Williams spoke alongside James E. Dennehy, the assistant director in command of the FBI’s New York Area Workplace, and the town’s Division of Investigation Commissioner, Jocelyn Strauber.
“This was a multi-year scheme to purchase favor with a single New York politician on the rise: Eric Adams,” Williams mentioned, describing the allegations as a “grave breach of the general public’s belief.”
“Mayor Adams…broke the legal guidelines which are designed to make sure that officers like him serve not the very best bidder, not a overseas bidder and positively not a overseas energy,” Williams mentioned. “These are vibrant purple strains, and we allege that the mayor crossed them repeatedly for years.”
Adams spoke to reporters Thursday morning exterior Gracie Mansion, flanked by longtime supporters together with a mentor, Rev. Herbert Daughtry, and Dr. Hazel Dukes, the previous president of the NAACP. The indictment, he mentioned, was “anticipated,” and he vowed to not heed a rising refrain of elected officials telling him to resign.
“This isn’t shocking to us in any respect, the actions which have unfolded over the past 10 months, the leaks, commentary, the demonizing. This didn’t shock us that we reached at the present time. And I ask New Yorkers to attend to listen to our protection earlier than making any judgment,” he mentioned.
“My attorneys will deal with the case, so I can deal with this metropolis. My everyday is not going to change,” he added. “I’ll proceed to do the job that I used to be elected to do.”
Alex Spiro, an lawyer for Adams, sought to decrease the costs after reviewing the indictment Thursday afternoon. Chatting with reporters exterior Gracie Mansion, he mentioned the aircraft tickets cited by prosecutors have been largely upgrades commonly supplied to VIP passengers like Adams and that of $10 million in matching funds acquired by the mayor’s 2021 marketing campaign, simply $26,000 got here from Turkish donors.
“There’s no corruption, this isn’t an actual case, we’re going to see everyone in court docket,” he mentioned. The court docket set Adams’ arraignment for midday Friday earlier than Justice of the Peace Choose Katharine Parker.
The overseas nationals, together with an unnamed “senior official within the Turkish diplomatic institution,” raised a lot of this by unlawful “straw” donations made by benefactors in different individuals’s names. The New York Occasions has identified him as former consul common Reyhan Ozgur. The officers additionally showered the peripatetic mayor with greater than $100,000 in free airfare, resort stays and “luxurious leisure” on journeys world wide, the indictment alleges.
In a number of situations spelled out within the indictment, Adams returned the favor. Per instruction from his Turkish benefactors, he agreed to not discuss in regards to the Armenian genocide on its anniversary in 2022. And, years earlier, he stopped associating with a Turkish neighborhood middle run by dissidents who oppose Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
However probably the most severe motion taken at Turkey’s request occurred in September 2021 when Adams pressured fire officials to permit a brand new 36-story constructing housing the Turkish consulate to open with out a fireplace security inspection in time for a go to by Erdogan. Adams was nonetheless Brooklyn borough president on the time, however had gained the Democratic major for mayor by a razor-thin margin and was nearly sure to win the November common election.
A letter from an FDNY fireplace inspector included within the indictment concluded after reviewing paperwork submitted by a contractor working with the Turkish authorities on the challenge: “this constructing just isn’t secure to occupy.” The indictment notes the constructing would have failed the inspection.
Adams was not arrested however is anticipated to give up to federal authorities quickly, to be arraigned in federal court docket. It’s primarily based on a prolonged investigation by the FBI and the town Division of Investigation.
Adams’ marketing campaign officers have repeatedly insisted they and the mayor had no information that any of those contributions have been unlawful. Williams mentioned the proof will present Adams “took these contributions despite the fact that he knew they have been unlawful.”
The indictment made it clear his benefactors anticipated one thing in return — and that Adams granted their needs.
“Adams elevated his fundraising by accepting these hid unlawful donations at the price of giving his secret patrons the undue affect over him that the regulation tries to stop,” the indictment alleges, including that the mayor was “offering favorable therapy in trade for the illicit advantages he acquired.”
Prosecutors additionally described Adams’ efforts to cowl his tracks, noting that he directed others to create faux information and a false paper path to make it appear he was paying for journey perks that he was truly getting without cost.
And it seems that he intentionally deleted messages with others concerned in his alleged misconduct, together with one occasion wherein he assured a co-conspirator “in writing that he ‘all the time’ deleted her messages.”
Enterprise Class Seats, Luxurious Suites
The alleged freebies date again to a minimum of 2016, when Adams served as Brooklyn borough president, with Adams and his companions receiving free or discounted air fare to France, China, Sri Lanka, India, Hungary and Turkey.
Maybe the most costly journey that Adams took without cost — valued at greater than $41,000 — included his son, Jordan Coleman, and his longtime volunteer liaison to the Chinese language-American neighborhood, Winnie Greco, in accordance with the indictment. The papers check with Coleman as a “shut relative” and to Greco as an “Adams liaison.”
Their weeks-long tour in July and August 2017 took them to France, Turkey, Sri Lanka and China — flying enterprise class at no cost on Turkish Airways.
That journey included a closely discounted keep within the Bentley Suite of the St. Regis resort in Istanbul — the place Adams and Coleman have been photographed with two businessmen, together with a promoter talked about all through the indictment, Arda Sayiner
The indictment says Adams paid $600 for 2 nights on the luxurious suite when the common value would have been about $7,000.
Simply months later, Adams and Greco traveled to Nepal by Istanbul and Beijing, in accordance with the indictment, for which they accepted free enterprise class seats on Turkish Airways value over $16,000 for a portion of the journey.
Steven G. Brill, an lawyer for Greco, mentioned she “paid her personal option to journey on these journeys and did so within the capability as an aide to then Brooklyn Borough President.”
Adams made his penchant for Turkish Airways clear to his companion, Division of Training administrator Tracey Collins, in textual content messages cited within the indictment papers.
Collins additionally benefited from a few of the upgraded or discounted journey over time, the indictment says, courtesy of an airline supervisor, recognized by The New York Occasions as Cenk Ocal.
She additionally allegedly loved free meals, a ship tour and a two-night keep on the Cosmopolitan Suite of the St. Regis on a visit to Istanbul with Adams in 2019, courtesy of Sayiner.
When Collins expressed shock that Adams’ journey to France, Sri Lanka and China included a cease in Turkey, Adams responded that Istanbul was merely a switch cease.
“You recognize first cease is all the time ins.tanbul [sic],” he texted, in accordance with the indictment.
When Collins later requested Adams about planning a visit to Easter Island off the coast of Chile, he made her name Turkish Airways to double examine whether or not the airline had routes between New York and Chile, the indictment says.
Adams did not disclose almost all the journey advantages he acquired in annual monetary disclosure kinds that he filed with the town’s Conflicts of Curiosity Board, in accordance with the Manhattan U.S. Legal professional’s workplace.
He additionally created a “faux paper path,” typically with the assistance of his workers, to make it seem as if he had paid for journey advantages he bought without cost — comparable to his 2017 flights on Turkish Airways, the indictment says.
Within the early years of his journeys to Turkey, Adams was requested by the unnamed Turkish official to cease associating with a Brooklyn neighborhood middle that was hostile to Turkey’s authorities if he wished the “help” from the Turkish authorities to proceed.
The indictment notes, “ADAMS acquiesced.”
Attempting to find Matching Funds
In court docket papers, Williams described measures he alleges Adams took to extract marketing campaign contributions for his mayoral race from Turkish residents. Overseas nationals are forbidden below federal regulation from contributing funds to U.S. elections.
In November 2018, Adams and an aide who served as a liaison to Turkey and close by nations, Anna Abbasova, met at Brooklyn Borough Corridor with a “rich Turkish nationwide” who owned a for-profit training group that operated universities in Turkey and america, the indictment says.
Adams had met with the businessperson, Enver Yucel, on a December 2015 journey to Istanbul, information present.
Through the 2018 assembly, Yucel — who’s recognized within the indictment as “Businessman-1” — supplied to contribute cash towards Adams’ 2021 marketing campaign for mayor, the indictment says.
Regardless of realizing that Yucel was a Turkish nationwide who couldn’t legally donate to his marketing campaign, the indictment says, Adams ordered Abbasova to see it by, writing shortly after the assembly that Yucel was “prepared to assist.”
“I don’t need his prepared to assist be waisted [sic],” Adams wrote, in accordance with the indictment.
The indictment says that the plan didn’t totally develop till August 2021, when Abbasova, Sayiner, and the president of the Turkish college in america mentioned a plan to allegedly funnel Yucel’s donations by Americans and inexperienced card-holders.
“ADAMS authorised the plan, realizing that [Yucel] was a Turkish citizen,” the indictment says.
Though the organizers had promised to boost a minimum of $25,000 below the scheme, simply 5 donations of $2,000 every have been in the end made on Sept. 27, 2021 — coming from workers and officers at Bay Atlantic College in Washington, D.C., as THE CITY beforehand reported.
The indictment says Yucel reimbursed $6,000 of the $10,000 in donations.
It goes on to say that when Yucel visited New York Metropolis in November 2022, after Adams was already serving as mayor, Adams allegedly declined to fulfill with him, stating that “they didn’t preserve their phrase.”
The indictment says that’s a reference to Yucel’s failure to contribute the complete $25,000.
It additionally alleges that Adams knowingly made false statements to the town Marketing campaign Finance Board when requesting and in the end receiving greater than $10 million in public matching funds for his 2021 marketing campaign.
Because of this, Adams might face a steep monetary penalty — and his marketing campaign may very well be thrown out of the matching funds program completely. Adams has already requested tens of 1000’s of {dollars} in matching funds for his 2025 marketing campaign, below the CFB program that gives $8 for each greenback donated by New York Metropolis residents, as much as $250.
In a number of situations, together with supporters convicted in instances introduced by Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg, Adams backers steered massive sums by a number of straw donors to maximise public {dollars} the marketing campaign would obtain.
The indictment alleges that knowingly collected unlawful donations from overseas sources and continued to solicit straw donations in his re-election marketing campaign.