Several donors who backed Eric Adams in his 2021 mayoral campaign were indicted Friday by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on charges that they organized a scheme using straw donors to falsify campaign forms to game the city’s matching funds system.
Prosecutors say the individuals allegedly organized multiple straw donors to hide individual contributions above the legal limit in order to boost Adams’ campaign and curry favor with the future mayor, as many of them own firms that hoped to do business with City Hall.
The alleged scheme involved six individuals: Dwayne Montgomery — a former NYPD inspector, Shamsuddin Riza, Millicent Redick, Ronald Peek, Yahya Mushtan and Shahid Mushta, as well as one entity: EcoSafety Consultants Inc — a site safety management company owned by Yahya Mushtan and Shahid Mushta, according to the indictment.
The defendants are charged with conspiracy in the fifth degree, attempted grand larceny in the third degree, offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree and attempted offering of a false instrument for filing in the first degree.
“We allege a deliberate scheme to game the system in a blatant attempt to gain power,” Bragg said in a statement. “The indictment charges the defendants with subverting campaign finance laws by improperly structuring campaign contributions. The New York City Campaign Finance Board program is meant to support our democracy and amplify the voices of New York City voters. When the integrity of that program is corrupted, all New Yorkers suffer.”
Four of the defendants — Montgomery, Riza, Redick and Shahid Mushtaq — pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court Friday monring, according to a published report. While the other two will be arraigned at a later date.
None of the individuals were involved in the mayor’s campaign, according to a Manhattan DA spokesperson, and the mayor himself wasn’t named in the indictment. But an unnamed campaign representative — referred to as “Campaign Representative-1” — was shown to have corresponded with the defendants in a couple of instances.
And in one phone conversation between Montgomery and Riza referenced in the indictment, Montgomery is quoted saying the mayor “said he doesn’t want to do anything if he doesn’t get 25 Gs” — meaning $25,000. It, however, wasn’t clear exactly what Montgomery was saying the mayor didn’t want.
The city Campaign Finance Board’s (CFB) matching funds program matches the first $250 of a contribution from any Big Apple resident eight to one, meaning that for every donation of that size, the city could be contributing $2,000 in taxpayer funds to the campaign. The program was established to limit the influence of big dollar donors, thus giving outsider candidates with smaller campaigns a better shot at running for public office.
“New York City’s public matching funds program makes our local elections more open, transparent, and equitable. The work that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is doing to protect the matching funds program from fraud and abuse is fundamental to its continued success,” said CFB Press Secretary Tim Hunter.
Montgomery and Riza, who are related, concocted the scheme in a bid to gain preferential treatment for companies they and their associates own with City Hall, according to the DA’s office. To that end, they put together fundraisers for Adams’ campaign where the defendants solicited contributions from straw donors — those who contribute to a campaign in their own name and are then reimbursed to flout contribution limits.
The indictment included several instances of the alleged conspirators soliciting straw donors to make false contributions between August 2020 and November 2021.
In one instance, the indictment alleges that in August 2020, Montgomery planned a virtual fundraiser for Adams, where straw donors donated to the campaign in their names and were then reimbursed by Montgomery.
The next year, Montgomery and Riza held another fundraiser at a restaurant in Sunnyside, Queens, according to the indictment. In the weeks before the event, Riza allegedly told donors about ways to get around city campaign contribution limits and exceeded his $2,000 donation limit by purchasing money orders recruiting family and friends to falsely sign contribution cards.
Evan Thies, the mayor’s campaign spokesperson, thanked Bragg for his investigation in an emailed statement, but said the mayor and the campaign weren’t involved in the alleged misdeeds.
“There is no indication that the campaign or the mayor is involved in this case or under investigation,” Thies said. “The campaign always held itself to the highest standards and we would never tolerate these actions. The campaign will of course work with the DA’s office, the Campaign Finance Board, and any relevant authorities.”
Thies, however, said in a subsequent statement that Adams knew Montgomery “socially” from sering together on the NYPD.
“Montgomery was a colleague of the mayor in the police department whom he knew socially and worked on criminal justice issues with,” he said. “Dozens of former police officers and criminal justice advocates hosted events for the mayor over the course of the campaign.”
