'A True Friend of Türkiye': Bribery Charges Against Eric Adams Reveal Years of Escape and Favors | Eric Adams

U.S. federal prosecutors have accused members of the Turkish government of conducting a years-long influence campaign to gain favor from New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

In an indictment unsealed Thursday morning, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York alleged that government officials and business leaders with ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan showered Adams with thousands of illegal foreign campaign contributions and free or deeply discounted luxury hotel stays and flights around the World.

In return, the indictment says, Adams provided various favors to the Turkish government, including pressuring a local fire official to circumvent security regulations and giving the green light to open a consular building so that it could be ready before a visit by Erdoğan.

After that alleged intervention, a Turkish government official wrote a message to the future mayor, calling him “a true friend of Turkey,” according to an exchange cited in court documents. Adams allegedly responded by calling the Turkish official “my brother.”

Adams, a 64-year-old former police officer and state lawmaker, is now charged with wire fraud, bribery and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals.

“The conduct alleged in the indictment, the foreign funds, the corporate funds, the bribery and the years of concealment constitute a serious breach of public trust,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference on Thursday.

Despite calls from a growing number of elected officials, Adams has vowed not to resign. The Democrat, who ran with a law-and-order message, is the first incumbent mayor of New York to be indicted on federal corruption charges.

“It is an unfortunate day. And it's a painful day. But behind all of this is a day when we will finally reveal why I went through this for ten months. And I look forward to defending myself,” he said on Thursday.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The indictment is the result of one of four apparent federal investigations conducted by U.S. attorneys for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York into Adams associates. Other investigations reportedly involve police officers and high-ranking city government officials with ties to other foreign nations.

This case focuses almost entirely on Adams' long-standing ties to Turkish government and business officials. Those relationships, prosecutors say, date back to 2015, when the then-Brooklyn borough president visited Turkey twice as part of a trip arranged there by government officials.

Over the next three years, Adams again visited Turkey, as well as France, Sri Lanka and China, accepting free Turkish Airlines business class tickets worth more than $35,000 as part of an influence campaign organized by a Turkish government official, prosecutors allege .

According to text messages cited in the case, during this time, Adams' associates actively solicited campaign contributions that they knew came from illegal foreign sources. And in some cases, prosecutors allege that Adams, then a mayoral candidate, was himself aware of the illegality.

In 2018, a Turkish entrepreneur who helped organize one of Adams' early trips to Turkey texted his liaison in which he made an illegal donation to Adams through a U.S. citizen straw donor, the report said Indictment: “We will make the donation through an American citizen in the USA… A Turk… I will give him cash in Turkey… Or I will send it to an American… He will make a donation to you.”

The Adams liaison expressed concern that the future mayor would not engage in “games like that,” but afterward, the liaison asked Adams whether she should pursue the illegal donations and he instructed her to do so, prosecutors allege .

Later that year, Adams met a wealthy Turkish businessman who owned a Turkish university. Despite being a foreigner, Adams texted his liaison that the businessman was “ready to help” and “didn't want his willingness to help limited (sic).”

Before Adams' election in 2021, New York campaign finance regulators drew attention and repeatedly demanded that Adams' campaign team explain who had bundled numerous suspicious donations for his campaign, including a number of donations from a fundraiser organized by a Turkish- American construction company The City news agency previously reported.

Adams' campaign ignored regulators' demands and failed to disclose its bundlers.

However, according to the indictment, one of the people who coordinated donations for the fundraiser behind the scenes was a Turkish government official who even sent his driver to deliver donations for the event.

Vito Pitta, Adams' campaign adviser, and Evan Thies, a consultant who worked on Adams' 2021 campaign, did not respond to requests for comment about the indictment.

The indictment also details how Adams received generous benefits from Turkish nationals.

The mayor reportedly had an agreement with Turkish Airlines that gave him a free upgrade to business class on several flights around the world. The arrangement became so routine for Adams that when his partner told him she wanted to fly to Easter Island in Chile, Adams told her to check whether Turkish Airlines was flying to the country.

Adams is also said to have accepted free or deeply discounted stays at opulent hotels in Turkey, including the cosmopolitan suite at the St. Regis Hotel in Istanbul. During the same trip in 2018, Adams also reportedly received “complimentary transportation, meals and entertainment, including a car and driver, a boat tour to the Princes' Islands in the Sea of ​​Marmara, a Turkish bath at a seaside hotel, and at least one meal at an upscale restaurant.”

Prosecutors also apparently received text messages brazenly discussing the plan. For example, in June 2021, a Turkish airline manager asked an Adams employee how much he should charge for a last-minute flight to Turkey. The manager suggested $50. The employee replied that he would charge about $1,000 to make it seem “somewhat real.”

“We don’t want them to say he’s flying for free. “Right now the media attention is on Eric,” the employee wrote.

During the same trip, the employee also inquired about where Adams and his partner could stay in Turkey, and the employee suggested the Four Seasons, a luxury hotel. The employee said it was too expensive and the manager replied, “Why does he care?” He won't pay. His name won't be on anything either.” The Adams employee simply replied: “Great.”

At a news conference Thursday, U.S. Attorney Williams said the investigation is ongoing.

“We continue to dig and hold more people accountable,” he told reporters. “And I encourage anyone with information to come forward, before it’s too late.”