US federal prosecutors have indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the subject of a federal investigation partly due to his alleged corrupt dealings with Turkish government officials who wanted to exert influence over him, US media outlets reported.
The 57-page indictment was unsealed Thursday morning, revealing that Adams faces charges of bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, according to CNN.
The indictment outlines alleged illegal actions stretching back to 2014, from when Adams was Brooklyn Borough president.
“For nearly a decade, Adams sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him,” the indictment reads.
Adams allegedly sought and accepted illegal “nominee” or “straw” contributions. By “smuggling their contributions” to Adams’ campaign through the straw donors and actors from overseas, Adams “defeated federal laws that serve to prevent foreign influence on US elections,” according to the indictment.
Businesses also circumvented the city’s ban on corporate contributions “by funneling their donations through multiple employees,” the indictment states.
The federal investigation by the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan focused at least in part on whether Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations and whether Adams pressured New York Fire Department officials to sign off on a new high-rise building named Turkish House (Türkevi) despite safety concerns.
The investigators were also examining whether Adams accepted pricey flights and upgrades on Turkish Airlines, which is partly owned by the Turkish government. And they sought information about a Brooklyn construction company run by Turkish Americans, and a small university in Washington, D.C., with Turkish ties.
Adams’s ties to the Turkish government and community stretch back years. As Brooklyn borough president, he actively wooed wealthy members of the Turkish community in south Brooklyn. The mayor states that he visited Turkey at least six times and met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he was Brooklyn borough president.
One of those trips, taken in 2015, was paid for by the Turkish Consulate General, according to financial disclosure forms, which list the purpose as being “to discuss a sister city agreement” with Turkish officials.
Most recently Adams attended an event hosted by first lady Emine Erdoğan at Turkish House on September 19, 2023. The “Path to the Global Zero Waste Movement” event was also attended by spouses of heads of state and government participating in the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Adams’ intervention paved the way for President Erdoğan, whose fondness for massive building projects was well known in Turkey, to preside over the grand opening of the 36-story Turkish House despite numerous flaws in its fire safety system, according to the people familiar with the matter and city records. The skyscraper in the center of New York City reflected Turkey’s “increased power,” Erdoğan said at its ribbon-cutting in 2023.
The inquiry into Adams remained secret until late last year, when an FBI search of his chief fundraiser’s home thrust it into public view. After searching the home of Brianna Suggs last November, federal investigators left with two laptop computers, three iPhones and a manila folder labeled “Eric Adams.” Suggs has not been accused of wrongdoing.
On the day of the search at Suggs’s home, agents also searched the New Jersey homes of Rana Abbasova, the director of protocol in the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs and Adams’s former liaison to the Turkish community, and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive and member of the mayor’s transition team. Neither Abbasova nor Öcal has been publicly accused of wrongdoing.
The indictment comes after the FBI seized Adams’s electronic devices in November 2023, when agents approached the mayor and his security detail in a dramatic scene that played out on a New York City street. The agents climbed into the mayor’s SUV with him and seized his electronic devices.
In a video released on Wednesday night, Adams, who was elected in 2021 as the New York City mayor from the Democratic Party, denied wrongdoing.
“I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” he said. “If I am charged, I am innocent, and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
He is the second Black mayor of New York and the first sitting mayor of New York City to be charged with a federal crime.