It was a moment of high drama. Federal agents stopped Mayor Eric Adams on the street on Nov. 5 and took his cell phones. As word of the seizure emerged Nov. 10, Adams declared he had “nothing to hide.”
“I would be shocked if someone stated that our campaign coordinated any illegal behavior,” Adams said.
But, as Thursday’s indictment charging Adams with a range of corruption charges linked to fundraising for his 2021 mayoral campaign details, the feds didn’t get Adams’ personal phone. They returned a day later with a subpoena.
Adams complied, and told them he had recently changed the password to preserve the contents for the investigation. Unfortunately, he said he had forgotten the password and couldn’t help them unlock it.
It was just one instance in a years-long pattern that federal prosecutors are painting as a pattern of deception on the part of Adams and others in his orbit to conceal criminal conduct that includes fake paper trails, encrypted messaging apps and hidden fundraisers.
“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 Mayor Adams abused that privilege and broke the law, laws designed to ensure that officials like him serve the people, not the highest bidder. these are bright red lines and we allege the mayor crossed them year after year,” U.S. Attorney Damian William
“The mayor had a duty to disclose these gifts on his annual disclosure forms so that the public could see who was giving him what. Year after year after year, he told the public he received no gifts even though he was secretly being showered with them.”
Prosecutors say the mayor has been abusing his influence since he was Brooklyn borough president by accepting more than $100,000 in perks from at least one Turkish government official and wealthy businessmen, like luxury trips to countries including Turkey, China, France, Hungary, Ghana and India that were not disclosed.
The feds say Adams’s benefactors further bought his influence by secretly funneling thousands of dollars into his campaign war chest via U.S.-based straw donors, netting public matching funds that contributed to the total $10 million raised by his 2021 mayoral campaign. It’s illegal for foreign nationals to donate to U.S. political candidates.
The mayor pleaded not guilty Friday in Manhattan federal court and his lawyer Alex Spiro characterized the charges as “upgrades on airlines for open seats.” “There are no emails, text messages, or any corroboration whatsoever that the mayor knew about anything having to do with these campaign donations,” Spiro said.
In fact, Spiro said, it was the feds who were being deceptive — claiming they had evidence Adams was unaware of any illegal fundraising and providing text messages to back up that contention.
“The entire body of evidence is one staffer, one staffer that says there was a conversation. What you have not learned is that that staffer has lied, and the government is in possession of that lie.”
The staffer Spiro was referring to was identified as Rana Abbasova who worked for the mayor when he was borough president and followed him to City Hall as a liaison with overseas entities. Her lawyer declined comment.
But the indictment makes it clear the feds will be pressing the question of how forthcoming Adams has been during his years in Brooklyn Borough Hall and as mayor.
The indictment, which appears to rely on more evidence than just the word of one person, alleges Adams while Brooklyn Borough President, took seven trips from 2016 through 2021 to half-a-dozen countries on the arm of Turkish interests with a value of $123,000, but did not disclose any of them on the annual financial disclosures he was required to file as a public official.
“I have had to fill out that form every year and I go through every bit of it to make sure it’s correct,” said Council Member Gale Brewer (D-Upper West Side) who has been in elected office since 2002. “We all know to do that. We are mandated. I found that upsetting.”
“I don’t see where he was checking. When his lawyer said it’s not a big deal to be upgraded, yes, it is. It’s not legal. Period. You are taking money.”
Adams allegedly deleted messages from the staffers who acted as go-between with the Turkish interests.
In March, 2019, his staffer, Abbasova, reminded him “Please delete all messages you send me.”
“Always do,” Adams replied, according to the indictment.
In September, 2023 two months before his phones were seized, Adams had already been gearing up for his 2025 re-election campaign and allegedly returned to a straw donor scheme that aided him in the 2021 race to illegally raise campaign funds from foreign donors. On Sept. 20, 2023, he appeared at a $5,000-a-plate dinner prosecutors allege was a fundraising event. But it was billed instead as a event focused on “international sustainability” and not disclosed on his public schedule.
The indictment alleges Adams’ efforts to conceal the straw donor scheme continued at least to mid-June. After news broke the FBI had contacted key alleged conspirators, the feds claim an Adams staffer told one of the Turkish businessmen he had met with Adams at City Hall and they had left their cellphones outside the room so it would be “safe” to talk.
The staffer then urged the businessman to lie to the feds and tell his employees who had made straw donations to lie as well, the feds allege.
In early November 2023, three days before the feds first took Adams’ phones – they did again early Thursday – they raided the home of Brianna Suggs, a key Adams fundraiser. Adams suddenly canceled meetings in Washington D.C. and rushed back to the city.
Behind the scenes, the indictment reveals, Suggs called Adams five times as FBI agents knocked on her door.
Adams then tried to call her as the agents were leaving the home.
The same day, the indictment says, an Adams staffer was visited by agents. She agreed to cooperate then ducked into a bathroom and deleted encrypted messaging apps she used to text Adams and other alleged conspirators.
The feds, in their allegations against the mayor, focus heavily on international travel. The indictment alleges he directed a scheme to create a “fake paper trail” to make it seems like his overseas trips cost much less than they actually did. Spiro says the upgrades were standard practice routinely made available to VIPs and there was nothing untoward about them.
Adams allegedly directed staff to create fake paper trails to either hide the true cost of the flights and hotels or indicate he had paid for them when he had not. In 2017, Adams messaged his scheduler saying “I left you the money for the international airline in an envelope in your top desk draw (sic). Please send it to them.”
In fact, the indictment states, he never left any cash in that drawer and didn’t pay for the tickets at all.
In June 2021, planning another flight to Turkey, Adams indicated he would pay his own way. He and a staffer agreed they would collect invoices and make small credit card payments to give the appearance he had paid for the tickets, the indictment said.
On June 22, 2021 – the day Adams won the Democratic primary – his staffer went back and forth with a Turkish airline official, identified in press reports as Cenk Ocal, over determining a price that seemed legitimate while still a massive discount.
Ocal offered to charge Adams just $50 a ticket. The staffer replied:
“Quote a real price. We don’t want them to say he is flying for free. His every step is being watched.”
In the end, Adams paid $1,100 each for the tickets. The true cost would have been $15,000, the indictment states.
