Feds Indict Mayor of New York City Eric Adams

The indictment was unsealed on Sept. 26 and alleges the mayor used his various government positions to solicit illegal campaign contributions and luxury international trips from businessmen and foreign nationals, particularly from Turkey. Adams is a Democrat.

Turkish Not-So-Delightful

Starting around November 2023, the FBI began raiding the homes and seizing the files and electronics of Mayor Adams and his aides. One of those arrests was Brianna Suggs, Adams’ chief fundraiser. The FBI raided Suggs in November 2023 to look for evidence of alleged hidden donations from Turkey to Mayor Adams’ campaign, according to local CBS coverage.

Now, ten months later, the 57-page indictment accusing Mayor Adams of allegations stretching back to 2014 when Adams became Brooklyn Borough President. In August 2015 and again in December 2015, Mayor Adams allegedly took business trips on Turkish Airlines to Turkey, paid for by the Turkish Consulate and a Turkish University. The travel commendations were reportedly upgraded to Business Class.

Adams disclosed these initial trips in his annual conflict of interest disclosure forms. Still, prosecutors allege that these travels set the foundation of Adams’ relationship with the Turkish government, and all further travel gifts were undisclosed, according to the indictment.

In October 2016, Adams and his domestic partner took a Turkish Airlines flight to India, paying $2,286 for tickets, but both received a free Business Class upgrade worth $15,000, according to the indictment. These luxury business-class upgrades and hotel suites reportedly continued with multiple trips over the years and are valued at over $100,000 in total, New York U.S. Attorney Damian Williams alleged in a press conference.

Matching Funds Program

During his 2021 campaign, Adams allegedly allowed Turkish government officials and businessmen to put funds into the Matching Funds Program, which matches up to eight times that of small-dollar donations. For some of the contributions, Adams’ employees allegedly paid separately into the program and were reimbursed by the businessmen who wanted to pay more than the $2,000 allowed.

In exchange for these contributions, Adams allegedly pressured the Fire Department to forgo a fire inspection that the department suspected would have failed in a 36-story Turkish consular building, according to prosecutors. With Adams’ alleged intervention, the firefighters cleared the building, and it opened in time for Turkey’s President’s scheduled visit.

Resignation of Police Commissioner Edward Caban

Feds are also scrutinizing other members of Adams’ inner circle.

Mayor Eric Adams announced on Sept. 12 in a press statement that he accepted the resignation of NYC Police Commissioner Edward Caban after the FBI seized Caban’s and his twin brother James Caban’s cell phones.

Calls for Edward Caban’s resignation mounted as the FBI reportedly took the phones of him and his twin brother James Caban, as well as other NYPD officers, as a part of an ongoing investigation into whether James Caban, who also served as an officer in the NYPD, accepted payment from night clubs and bars in exchange for favoritism from the police department, the NBC broadcast reported.

Cell Phone Seizures

However, the investigation into Edward and James Caban is not the only investigation into Mayor Adam’s inner circle. The homes of Philip Banks III, the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, and Sheena Wright, the First Deputy Mayor, were searched by the FBI and NYC’s Department of Investigation in a completely separate investigation, according to NBC New York coverage. The raid seized cell phones and other electronic devices.

This comes nine months after Mayor Adams’ chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, was reassigned after the FBI raided her home back in November 2023 due to concerns surrounding whether Mayor Adams had taken illegal campaign donations from Turkey, as detailed in CBS coverage.

Adams denied these claims in an extended press conference and maintained that he instructed Suggs to follow the law per campaign finance rules. Not long afterward, the mayor’s home was raided, and his phone was seized in connection with the investigation.

On Feb. 29, another of Mayor Adams’ top advisors, Winnie Greco, Director of Asian Affairs, was raided by the FBI as part of a probe alleging that Greco made a business executive give her nonprofit organization $10,000 in exchange for access to one of Mayor Adams’ events, as reported by Fox local news.

Mayor Adams, the Innocent

Mayor Adams maintains his innocence but said in a press conference on Sept. 26 that he wasn’t surprised by the indictment. The mayor pleaded not guilty in court on Sept. 27, and his attorney, Alex Spiro, announced in a statement to the press that they plan to file a motion to dismiss and argued that the case is based on one staffer’s statement. He also notes that there are no messages or texts that prove Mayor Adams knew about the campaign donations.

Despite his insistence that he is innocent, calls for Mayor Adams to step down have been mounting. House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for his resignation in a statement. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander insinuated in a press release that New York City doesn’t have a government they can trust. NYC’s Public Advocate, Jumaane D. Williams, said in a statement that the mayor’s time to regain New Yorkers’ trust is “running out.”

Mayor Adams said in his press conference that he won’t step down. He faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted on all counts.