New York City mayor Eric Adams indicted in corruption investigation News
Billie Grace Ward from New York, USA, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
New York City mayor Eric Adams indicted in corruption investigation

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted Thursday for impermissibly soliciting and accepting donations from foreign agents in exchange for political favors, as well as illegally obtaining public funds through the guise of small donor campaign contributions.

The 57-page indictment accuses Adams of accepting benefits from Turkish foreign nationals that included plane tickets, hotels, luxury entertainment, and campaign donations. The US Attorney’s Office from the Southern District of New York handled the investigation in conjunction with the FBI and New York City’s own Department of Investigation.

Adams is also accused of siphoning off $10 million in public funds through campaign donations by using “straw donations” — a scheme where money donated by foreign nationals was funneled through city residents to circumvent campaign finance laws. The indictment claimed that this scheme took advantage of a city matching funds program, which matches “small dollar contributions from individual City residents with up to eight times their amount in public funds, to give New Yorkers a greater voice in elections.”

Investigators claimed that Adams took action to hide the benefits from public scrutiny by failing to disclose them in annual financial statements. He allegedly instructed subordinates to create fake paper trails to suggest that he had paid for the benefits himself. The indictment also includes accusations that Adams traveled to Turkey multiple times to solicit campaign donations, and intervened to expedite the permitting process for the newly built Turkish consulate building in New York City in exchange for travel-related bribes.

Adams has been charged with conspiracy to receive campaign contributions from foreign nationals and commit wire fraud and bribery, wire fraud, two charges of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, and a count of soliciting and accepting a bribe. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to 40 years in prison.

The indictment follows another high-profile corruption trial against former Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who was found guilty of bribery offenses and conspiracy to act as a foreign agent in July.

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