New York City Mayor Eric Adams charged with bribery

Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged New York City Mayor Eric Adams with five counts of bribery, fraud and soliciting foreign campaign donations, making him the first modern New York City mayor to be indicted while in office. Adams has thus far resisted calls to resign while pledging to fight the charges.

The indictment is the culmination of a virtual collapse of the Democratic administration in the city, as corruption probes have hit the police department, the school system, the agencies responsible for the welfare of immigrants and the mayor’s own executive office. Indictments, resignations, transfers and forced retirements abound.

Prosecutors released the 57-page indictment Thursday. It describes a multiyear scheme dating from Adams’ tenure as Brooklyn borough president and continuing through his stint as mayor to secure illegal campaign donations and luxury travel while fraudulently obtaining public funding for his campaign.

According to the indictment, Adams developed dealings with multiple Turkish businesspeople and government officials, who provided him with free or heavily discounted trips worldwide, including to Turkey, India, France, Sri Lanka, China, Hungary, Pakistan and Ghana. All told, prosecutors estimate Adams received flights, luxury hotel stays, food and entertainment worth more than $100,000 between 2016 and 2021. Adams failed to disclose these gifts in required reports, often covering them up with fake paper trails.

Prosecutors allege that Adams also requested tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from foreign interests, which is illegal under US law. To conceal the origin of the donations, the campaign used “straw donors,” US citizens who falsely certified that they had provided the money. These phone contributions were then used to obtain public campaign financing. In New York, candidates can receive public funding of up to eight times the value of small individual donations. “As a result of those false certifications, (Adams’) 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10,000,000 in public funds,” the indictment states.

In exchange for donations and gifts, Adams’ patrons received access to a rising figure in the Democratic Party. The indictment alleges Adams personally intervened to fast-track the opening of a new Turkish high-rise consulate in September 2021, in time for the president of Turkey’s visit, despite the building failing the fire inspection.

Adams’ indictment is the product of just one of at least five corruption investigations engulfing the administration. On September 12, New York Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned a week after his home was raided by federal investigators. Press reports indicate that the raid was part of a probe into the top cop’s twin brother, James, a former NYPD officer himself, who is suspected of shaking down nightclubs, demanding payments in exchange for protection from NYPD enforcement.