DOJ Indicts Eric Adams

My name is Damian Williams and I’m the United States Attorney here in the Southern District of New York. Today, we are announcing campaign finance, bribery, and conspiracy charges against Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City. As the indictment alleges, Mayor Adams engaged in a long-running conspiracy in which he solicited and knowingly accepted illegal campaign contributions from foreign donors and corporations.

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As we allege, Mayor Adams took these contributions even though he knew they were illegal, and even though he knew these contributions were attempts by a Turkish government official and Turkish businessmen to buy influence with him. We also allege that the mayor sought and accepted well over $100,000 in luxury travel benefits from some of the same foreign actors who arranged many of the illegal campaign contributions. These benefits included free international business class flights and opulent hotels. We allege that Adams accepted these benefits knowing that they were given to him because of his position, and in exchange for some of those improper benefits, he intervened in the New York City Fire Department’s inspection process for a building owned and operated by the Turkish government, allowing it to open even though it had not passed the fire inspection.

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The corruption alleging the indictment is, as I said, long-running. As we allege in the indictment, Adams’ solicitation of illegal campaign contributions began in 2018. After he started raising funds for his 2021 mayoral campaign, he agreed to take contributions offered by multiple Turkish businessmen, several of whom he met in Turkey. Adams knew that these wealthy individuals could not legally donate in a US election. Federal law clearly prohibits foreign donations. That’s how we protect our elections from foreign influence. Yet Adams directed his staff to pursue this illegal money to support his campaign for mayor, and as we allege, Adams continued to pursue foreign money in secret well into 2021. And it didn’t stop with his first campaign for mayor. As we allege in 2023, the mayor rekindled these corrupt relationships, seeking more illegal campaign contributions from some of the same foreign sources to support his reelection campaign.

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Adams also took contributions that broke other laws. As we allege, he sought contributions from businessmen far in excess of what the law allowed. He also allegedly sought contributions from corporations which are not allowed to contribute at all in New York City elections. Many of those illegal corporate contributions were organized by the same people who organized the illegal foreign contributions and Adams allegedly disguised them all in the same way, by accepting the money through so-called straw donors. A straw donor contributes someone else’s money, hiding the money’s illegal source, such as a foreign businessman, a corporation, or a wealthy New Yorker who has already contributed the maximum amount allowed. And as we allege, Adams circumvented all of these laws, taking contributions from exactly the sources the law prohibits, all to benefit his mayoral campaigns.

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Now, Adams also personally benefited from the illegal conduct alleged in the indictment. Adams solicited and accepted over $100,000 in luxury travel benefits for years from wealthy Turkish business people, and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him.

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Adams started accepting undisclosed luxury travel benefits at least as early as 2016. He took these benefits nearly every year through 2021. Here are some of the benefits that we uncovered during our investigation. In 2016, Adams flew to India through Turkey and received two free round trip upgrades for business class seats. That’s the highest class on Turkey’s National Airline. Those upgrades were worth more than $12,000 and none of it was publicly disclosed. In 2017, Adams accepted free business class tickets for himself and his travel companions to France, Turkey, and China, and he was put up in the Bentley suite in the St. Regis Hotel in Istanbul. All of that was worth more than $41,000 and none of it was publicly disclosed. Also, in 2017, he flew to China again through Turkey and accepted two free business class tickets for himself and a companion. Those were worth more than $16,000 and none of it was publicly disclosed.

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In 2018, he flew to Hungary through Turkey and accepted free upgrades for business class seats. Those were worth more than $12,000 and none of it was publicly disclosed. In 2019, he flew to Turkey and accepted a free upgrade to business class for his companion and a free stay in a lavish suite at the St. Regis Hotel in Istanbul. That was worth more than $9,000, and again, none of it was publicly disclosed. In 2021, Adams solicited business class tickets to Istanbul, stays at luxury hotels and resorts, yacht tours and meals. As we allege, he asked to pay a nominal fee for all of this in order to disguise what we allege were in fact bribes. He canceled that trip at the very last minute, but the benefits that he solicited were worth more than $21,000. And later in 2021, Adams flew to Ghana again through Turkey and accepted free business class ticket upgrades and other gifts while he was on a layover in Istanbul.

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Those benefits were worth more than $12,000. And just like all the other benefits I’ve just run through, none of it was publicly disclosed. Now, I want to be clear, these upgrades and freebies were not part of some frequent flyer or loyalty program available to the general public. As we allege, this was a multi-year scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise, Eric Adams. Now, this is a chart with all of the undisclosed travel benefits that we uncovered during the investigation. We just listed all out here. You see the year 2016, 2017, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. The destination, India, all the way to Ghana. The benefits, the free upgrades or free tickets all together, the hotel stays, and the value. And if you just sum up all the dollar amounts here, you get to more than $100,000. And of course, as I said before, every single trip that we list here was undisclosed.

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As we allege in the indictment, in addition to not disclosing these benefits, Adams sometimes created fake paper trails to try to cover up the travel benefits he solicited and received. Let me give you one example. Adams wrote emails to his staff suggesting he paid for his 2017 business class flights on the Turkish Airline when as we allege he did not. Those flights were worth a lot of money. Just one ticket alone costs more than $10,000. But months after taking the flights, Adams wrote an email to a staff member and told the staff member that he had left cash in her desk drawer and that she should send the money to the Turkish Airline to pay for a trip he had already taken. As the indictment makes clear, that’s just a clumsy cover-up. Now, just because Adams received benefits for free, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t strings attached. As we allege a particular Turkish government official behind many of the benefits Adams sought and accepted, gave Adams all these things to gain influence over him.

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We allege that Adams knew that and took the benefits anyway. We allege that when the Turkish government official needed him, Adams also took corrupt official action in exchange for some of the luxury travel benefits. In 2021, the Turkish government official was trying to open a brand-new high-rise building in Manhattan that would house Turkey’s Consulate. There was significant time pressure because the Turkish official desperately needed the building to be open in time for a visit from Turkey’s president. This building was important to the Turkish official and it was important to Turkey, but the FDNY’s fire safety professionals wouldn’t let the building open because the building hadn’t passed an inspection. And not just that, some of the people at the FDNY thought the building had so many issues and defects that the building was not safe to occupy. So the Turkish officials sent word to Adams that it was “his turn” to support Turkey.

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And as we allege, Adams delivered and pressured the fire department to let the building open. FDNY professionals were convinced that they would lose their jobs if they didn’t back down, and so they did. They got out of the way and let the building open. The Turkish official got what he wanted, and as we explained in the indictment, just four days after Adams held up his end of the bargain, he went right back to soliciting more travel benefits from the Turkish airline.

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Now, I want to make three things crystal clear. First, the conduct alleged in the indictment, the foreign money, the corporate money, the bribery, the years of concealment is a grave breach of the public’s trust. Public office is a privilege. We allege that Mayor Adams abused that privilege and broke the law, laws that are designed to ensure that officials like him serve the people, not the highest bidder, not a foreign bidder, and certainly not a foreign power. These are bright red lines and we allege that the mayor crossed them again and again for years. That is the only reason we are here today.

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Second, this investigation continues. We continue to dig and we will hold more people accountable, and I encourage anyone with information to come forward and to do so before it’s too late. And third, the Southern District of New York remains committed to rooting out corruption without fear or favor and without regard to partisan politics. We are not focused on the right or the left. We are focused only on right and wrong. That is our duty and we will fulfill it. Now, today’s charges are the product of a tremendous partnership. I want to thank our partners at FBI and the New York City Department of Investigation who have been with us every step of the way. And finally, I want to commend the outstanding career prosecutors from SDNY who are handling this case, Celia Cohen, Andrew Warbach, Hagen Scotton, and Derek Wickstrom, and the Chiefs of the Public Corruption Unit, Laura Pomerantz and Robert Sobelman. It’s now my pleasure to turn the podium over to FBI assistant director in charge, James Dennehy.

Good morning and thank you for being here today. The indictment of a sitting mayor is not just another headline. It is a stinging reminder that no one is above the law or beyond reproach, and it serves as a sobering moment for all of us who place our trust in elected officials.

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Today’s indictment sends a powerful message to every elected official in this country, public service is a profound responsibility and should be a noble calling. When that’s perverted by greed and dishonesty, it robs us of our trust. It’s a pact between leaders and their communities built on the pillars of trust, accountability, and transparency. When that pact is broken, the consequences ripple far beyond one office or one election cycle. We know not all leaders are corrupt. We know there are countless public servants who wake up every day with the intention of doing right by their constituents, but we cannot ignore the shadow cast by moments like this. When trust is eroded, it takes years, sometimes decades to rebuild. The weight of today’s actions falls not just on the indicted official, but on every other public official who must now work harder to earn the public’s confidence in them. It’s important to remember accountability isn’t just about punishing those with alleged wrongdoings. It’s about lifting the communities they’ve let down. It is about rebuilding, restoring and reimagining what public servants can and should do.

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It’s up to us to demand more from our leaders, to hold them to the highest standards and to remind them that the power of public office should never be abused. While some may be disappointed today, let me encourage you not to be defeated. The strength of our communities, our faith in one another, and our collective resilience are far greater than the alleged failings of any one individual. In closing, I’d like to thank the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams and his office, Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber and the New York City Department investigation and her team, as well as my team, the public Corruption Squad here at FBI, New York. Thank you.

I’d like to welcome up Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber from the New York City Department of Investigation.

Thank you, Damian. Good morning. Today for the first time in New York City’s modern history, we announce criminal charges against the sitting mayor of New York City. As our highest elected official, the mayor should set the standard for all of city government and exemplify the integrity, transparency, and dedication to serving the public that all New Yorkers deserve. Instead, the indictment unsealed today alleges that Mayor Adams abused his power and position for nearly a decade as Brooklyn Borough president and as mayor to enrich himself and his mayoral campaigns. As charged, he sought and received illegal campaign contributions, luxury travel, and other personal benefits from foreign nationals, as well as individuals and businesses. He allegedly took steps to conceal those illegal contributions and personal benefits and involved city employees and campaign staff in that concealment.

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As the indictment explains, this kind of corruption has real costs to the city and to the public. As alleged, the mayor’s 2021 campaign falsely certified compliance with campaign finance laws in order to conceal those illegal campaign contributions. And as a result of those false certifications, received over $10 million in public matching funds. The mayor’s alleged acceptance and concealment of illegal contributions and personal benefits gave overseas benefactors, wealthy individuals, and businesses undue influence over the mayor, influence that federal and local laws seek to prevent. And as charged, in exchange for certain personal benefits, the mayor pressured the New York City Fire Department [inaudible 00:16:32] confidentially and wholly independent of City Hall. We handled this investigation as we would any other, following the facts and seeking to hold wrongdoers accountable no matter their role or title.

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Our unique access to city records and expertise in matters of city government make us a critical partner in the fight to root out corruption, working closely with our law enforcement colleagues at the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office.

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If you have information about this case or about illegal conduct by any New York City official or employee, I encourage you to contact DOI by email at tipline@doi.nyc.gov or by phone at 212-825-2828. I want to thank the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI for their partnership on this investigation. And I want to recognize and thank the dedicated, hardworking DOI investigators who are handling this matter, Senior Inspector General Eleonora Rivkin, Inspector General Audrey Feldman, Deputy Inspectors General Arturo Sanchez and Trenton Sweeney, and their supervisors, Deputy Commissioners Christopher Ryan and Dominic [inaudible 00:17:58]. Thank you.

Thank you everyone.

Can you just say, Mr. Mayor Adams has said he’s not going to resign. He said that this is a witch hunt because [inaudible 00:18:14].

On behalf of everybody [inaudible 00:18:26].