
On Wednesday, September 26th, federal prosecutors unsealed a 57-page indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The indictment charges Adams with five counts of alleged bribery, fraud, and illegal solicitations of campaign contributions.
The charges come after a year of increased public scrutiny into Adams’ nearly decade-long relationship with the Turkish government. Early last November, the FBI began investigating Adams for campaign finance violations and improper favors he gave Istanbul. They seized two phones and an iPad from Adams himself just a few days after raiding the home of Brianna Suggs, Adams’ campaign advisor. Suggs stepped down later that month.
The allegations against Adams fall into three categories: illegally soliciting and concealing gifts made by the Turkish Government, illegally soliciting campaign donations from foreign nationals and New York City businesspeople, and accepting gifts from the Turkish government in return for favors as illegal quid pro quo bribery.
Unreported Gifts
The indictment starts with a description of Eric Adam’s history of receiving gifts from the Turkish government through Turkish Airlines, of which the Turkish government owns 49%. The gifts started in 2015, and continued through 2021, according to the indictment. During this time, the New York City Conflict of Interest Board required Adams to report these gifts annually, but he only did so during the first year of his relationship with Turkey. After 2015, Adams stopped reporting these gifts in violation of NYC law.
The indictment spends over 10 pages describing these unreported gifts Adams accepted from the Turkish government. The seven unreported gifts spanning across six years of Adams’ time in government range from $9,000 to over $41,000 in value, adding up to over $111,000 in total. It is worth noting that a free luxury travel package valued at $21,000 that Adams solicited and accepted was then canceled, bringing the total value of gifts received down to at least $90,000.
The gifts include five round-trip business class tickets and nine business class ticket upgrades on Turkish Airlines. In 2017, a heavily discounted luxury hotel stay was included with a gift of three free business class tickets. Adams allegedly paid only $600 for a two-night stay in the Bentley Suite at Istanbul’s 5-star St. Regis Hotel. A normal two-night stay would normally cost around $7,000.
The indictment alleges that Adams and his staff occasionally solicited and received fake bills for his free or discounted services to attempt to hide the nature of his travel.
Interestingly, Adams’ alleged failure to report these gifts is not itself one of the five charges in the indictment. Instead, the indictment uses these unreported gifts as evidence of the two bribery-related charges. Prosecutors may have chosen to pursue a more narrow set of counts against Adams in hopes that fewer counts would lead to an easier conviction.
Straw Donor Schemes with Foreign Money
The indictment also alleges that Adams solicited and accepted illegal contributions through straw donations, a means of donating by which you use others’ money to donate in your own name, which is a crime. Furthermore, two of the three alleged instances of straw donor schemes were from contributors who were foreign nationals—a further crime.
The first straw donor scheme was funded by an individual the indictment calls “Businessman-4,” whom the New York Times has identified as Tolib Mansurov, an Uzbek businessman who runs the Manhattan-based contracting company United Elite Group. Two volunteers of the Adams mayoral campaign who later became campaign employees approached Mansurov in December 2020, allegedly saying that a $10,000 campaign donation would give him influence with Adams. After making his straw contribution later that month, Mansurov solicited and received help from Adams with the NYC Department of Buildings after he was elected mayor.
The second scheme was funded by Enver Yücel, whom the indictment refers to as “Businessman-1.” Yücel met with Adams in November 2018, offering to contribute to his mayoral campaign. Adams accepted the offer knowing Yücel was a foreign national. In August 2021, the Adams campaign and the president of the DC-based Bay Atlantic University, owned by Yücel, coordinated ways to funnel the money into the Adams campaign. Adams approved a plan that detailed how $10,000 dollars from Yücel would be distributed through the employees at Bay Atlantic and then donated to the campaign. The donations were ultimately refunded, but not before the campaign filed a disclosure statement to the Campaign Finance Board listing the straw donors as authentic ones.
The last straw donor conspiracy outlined occurred in September 2023. Adams directed his campaign to coordinate with a Turkish government official to solicit funds from Turkish nationals. The team planned a fundraiser event disguised as a sustainability summit. The campaign charged $5,000 or more to attend this event, and they raised $22,800 before the date of the fundraiser. Even though Adams knew a portion of the contributions were from foreign donors, he allowed the money to be funneled to his campaign through straw donors.
Bribery
In September 2021, Adams used his weight as the Democratic mayoral nominee and presumptive next mayor to pressure the New York City Fire Department (“FDNY”) into issuing a “conditional letter of no objection” for the new Turkish Consulate building in NYC. Previous inspections failed because of multiple serious fire safety defects. The Turkish Consulate had hoped for the building to be ready to open by September 20th when the Turkish president would arrive in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Unable to pass inspection, the Turkish official who had previously facilitated Adams’ free and discounted luxury travel reached out to Adams and told him that because Turkey had supported him, it was now “his turn” to support Turkey. Adams then pressured the FDNY Commissioner into writing a conditional letter of no objection, allowing the building to be opened in time for the Turkish President’s visit. Adams received further free travel from the Turkish government just four days after he wrote the letter.
Responses
Adams responded on the day of the indictment by delivering remarks over the shouts of protestors at the mayor’s mansion. He denied any wrongdoing, saying, “Everyone who knows me knows I follow campaign rules, and I follow the law. That is how I live my life.” Just before the indictment was unsealed, Adams released a video where he stated that “these charges [in the indictment] will be entirely false, based on lies.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of New York’s most prominent elected politicians, called for Adams to resign in a statement to the New York Times, joining the growing ranks of local and state politicians calling for a resignation. Notably, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has not yet called for Adam’s resignation. According to New York City’s charter, Hochul has the authority to forcibly remove Adams but has so far declined to do so. The Governor is already on shaky ground politically, and a forcible removal may alienate Adams’ much-needed voter base. A recently released poll shows 69% of NYC residents believe Adams should resign, with 79% saying he did something illegal or unethical.
Despite these calls, Adams has insisted he will remain in office. On September 29th, three days after the indictment, Adams delivered remarks to a church in the Bronx, saying “When people say, ‘You need to resign,’ I say, ‘I need to reign.’”
Adams has faced some tough questions these past few weeks regarding his ability to continue serving as New York City’s mayor. Yet, during a press conference on Tuesday, he finally received a question he was happy to answer. When asked about the service and meal quality on Turkish Airlines, Adams gave an enthusiastic answer: “You know, I love that question. Great service, great service.”
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