Federal prosecutors allege in an indictment that Mayor Eric Adams accepted tens of thousands of dollars in illicit gifts from foreign nationals and later took official actions on their behalf, a brazen breach of New York City’s stringent rules regarding politicians accepting gifts.
In a sprawling five-count, 57-page indictment, prosecutors accuse Adams of accepting more than $100,000 worth of illicit gifts from Turkish officials while he served as Brooklyn Borough President, including free and heavily discounted flights all over the world, business class upgrades, and free hotel suites, meals, and entertainment while traveling.
Adams is also accused of soliciting thousands of dollars in illegal contributions from foreign donors, hiding the origin of the funds using illegal straw donors, and fraudulently reaping public matching campaign financing to the tune of $10 million in his 2021 campaign.
US Attorney Damian Williams said Adams’ alleged conduct went well past legal grey areas and crossed “bright red lines” “again and again for years.”
Hizzoner has called the charges “entirely false, based on lies” and suggested the feds are targeting him for political reasons. He has rejected outright calls for his resignation from various corners.
‘Where the red flags were’
Adams allegedly blew well past the rules for accepting both gifts and campaign contributions. Elected officials are not supposed to accept gifts of more than $50 in value from people doing business before the city.
When they do accept gifts, they are supposed to disclose them to the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board — including when someone without business before the city gives over $1,000. Adams allegedly failed to do so, according to the indictment.
“You want people to be able to draw conclusions for themselves about whether influence is being sought, properly or not,” said Rachael Fauss, senior policy advisor at the good government group Reinvent Albany. “That’s what financial disclosures are for: they’re there so they can be looked at, and ethics commissions and journalists can look at whether there’s influence being sought.”
When politicians go abroad, they often travel on someone else’s tab but claim the purpose of the visit is official business, such as for a conference or meeting with foreign dignitaries. What makes Adams’ travel different is that it was all personal business, and none of it was ever disclosed, according to prosecutors.
“The rules are that you have to ask permission and then report it,” said Fauss. “Travel expenses are a common thing, but there’s a process to go through. And the process wasn’t followed here if it wasn’t reported. That’s where the red flags are.”
When it comes to campaign contributions, Adams is alleged not only to have broken federal laws disallowing foreign contributors in local elections. He also allegedly defrauded the city’s campaign finance system by submitting phony financial statements and reaping the rewards of New York’s 8-to-1 public matching funds system, reaping in what prosecutors say was up to $10 million in ill-gotten gains.
New York City political candidates who enter the public matching funds system agree that no single individual contributor can give more than $2,000 to a campaign, while corporate contributions are banned. The first $250 of a contribution is matched at an 8-to-1 rate in a bid to increase the pull of small-dollar donations to political candidates, who otherwise rely on big-ticket donors for their fundraising.
That means for each $2,000 donation to Adams’ campaign, his coffers could add an additional $2,000 of money from city taxpayers.
To get around the large amounts of money his alleged foreign benefactors wanted to give him, prosecutors charged that Adams, his staffers, and his benefactors allegedly enlisted US citizens to make the contributions in their own name and subsequently be reimbursed by the original donor. Adams and his staff are accused of being aware of this arrangement, with contributions fraudulently documented in disclosures to the city’s Campaign Finance Board, which runs the matching funds program.
The Campaign Finance Board’s chair, Frederick Schaffer, said in a statement that the agency is “closely reviewing” the indictment against the mayor.
“While the mayor is presumed innocent until proven guilty and deserves due process, the Board will nonetheless review all relevant information, including but not limited to the indictment, in order to uphold our city’s campaign finance rules and protect taxpayer dollars,” Schaffer said.
