High-profile corruption scandal involving Eric Adams

Corruption scandals in the offices of presidents and mayors in the United States are not uncommon. New high-profile criminal cases against government officials and officials are also constantly breaking out in New York. In September 2024, the accusation of bribery of the current mayor, Eric Adams, came as a surprise to many. He is a former police captain, the second consecutive Democratic mayor in 20 years after Bill de Blasio and the second black mayor in the city’s history. What prompted the opening of the investigation and how the politician reacted to the accusations? Read more on bronx-yes.

What is Eric Adams accused of?

Currently, five separate criminal cases have already been opened against Eric Adams:

• bribery under federal programs
• email fraud
• bribery
• receiving campaign contributions from foreign citizens
• conspiracy to commit fraud.

The general document with the charges is a folder with 57 pages. Thus, the process should be long and difficult.

Adams’s long-standing Turkish friendship played a cruel joke. From 2016, when he served as the President of the New York borough of Brooklyn, Eric Adams enjoyed extraordinary privileges from the Turkish side. He has been to Turkey many times. These have always been luxury trips with accommodation in luxury hotels, visits to elite restaurants and premium-class flights. However, the politician paid almost nothing for this. For example, for a two-day visit to the St Regis Hotel in Istanbul for accommodation in the Bentley Room, Adams paid only $600, while the cost was $7,000.

US Attorney Damian Williams at a press conference claims that in this way the Turkish side used a complex multi-year scheme to gain the favor and support of the promising American politician.

Then, there was the 2021 election program, for which, according to the prosecution, Adams used funds from Turkish sources, while this is prohibited in the United States. Candidates are not allowed to accept contributions from people who are not US citizens or legal residents, as well as from corporations and foreign legal entities and organizations.

Obviously, the Turkish side had its own interest in helping Adams win and appeasing him with generous gifts. One of the episodes related to this occurred in 2021. Eric Adams, at the request of a Turkish diplomat, pressured a New York City fire department official to issue a fictitious report without conducting a fire inspection that the new building of the Turkish consulate was ready for the visit of the Turkish President.

The fire department representative, fearing losing his job, signed the necessary documents. He is one of the prosecution witnesses at the upcoming court hearings.

What will happen to Adams if he loses in court?

The charges are really serious, there are many witnesses and several criminal cases… If the worst-case scenario for Adams comes true, he faces a long prison sentence of about 35 years. The minimum term within one case is 5 years and the maximum reaches 20 years.

This story is a threat to Adams’ political career and calls into question his participation in the 2025 elections.

Many of his colleagues, including members of the New York City Council and Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are calling for the mayor to resign. However, Adams said he would fight the charges.

‘I will continue to do my job as mayor’, he said at a news conference.

A Marist poll found that 69% of New Yorkers, including 71% of Democrats, want the mayor to resign, with 30% saying he should stay in office until the end of his term.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is also leaning toward the mayor’s resignation. Although she has the authority to remove him from office without his consent, doing so would be politically dangerous and unethical. Thus, the governor is continuing to pressure Adams to make the decision to leave before it’s too late.

Read about the 2024 Bronx elections here.

Adams does not give up: phone fraud and the loss of the team

After the first charges were brought against the mayor in September 2024, active investigative work began. The first object was the Banks family, because with them Adams built his administration. Federal search warrants were served on the deputy mayor for criminal justice, Philip Banks III, his brother, the chancellor of schools, David Banks, the first deputy mayor, Sheena Wright and the third brother, Terence Banks, a government consultant. After that, Sheena Wright and David Banks resigned.

Then, raids began among representatives of the police department. The objects of the investigation were Police Commissioner Edward Caban and Thomas Donlon, the Police Commissioner in Manhattan.

Eric Adams made very few comments. One of his statements was that the charges against him are payback from the White House for criticizing the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

On FOX 5’s ‘Good Day New York’ when asked by the host whether he really believes that all this is due to disagreements with the current authorities, Adams replied:

‘Listen, I said I would be a target and I became the one’.

Despite the fact that the mayor’s former team is falling apart, Eric Adams is not going to leave his post and declares that he is ready to fight to the end, as he does not consider himself guilty.

However, his latest act within the framework of the investigation has called into question the purity of intentions and the innocence of the politician. If there is nothing to hide, a person does not behave like that.

When the FBI came to the mayor with a search warrant, he had two phones with him, which were taken for the investigation. One of the phones turned out to be blocked. When the investigator asked Adams to enter his password, he said that he had changed it from a four-digit one to a more complex one of six digits just the day before. However, he was in a state of nervous stress at the time and simply forgot which digits he had entered.

According to the prosecution, this case was not the only attempt by Eric Adams to hide his illegal behavior from law enforcement.

Other corruption scandals in New York City Hall

Criminal cases against politicians are opened quite often. Several New York mayors were also involved in them.

In 1932, accusations of corruption schemes forced the mayor Jimmy Walker to resign. In 1950, the situation repeated. This time, William O’Dwyer left his post in disgrace.

Corruption scandals did not always directly affect the politicians against whom the accusations were made. Thus, they undermined the popularity of Mayor Ed Koch, although he was not the main or even a secondary figure in any illegal schemes. The general political environment of the mayor led to the loss of the trust of voters, which to some extent led to Koch’s defeat in the 1989 elections. One of the members of that environment was Stanley Simon. Read about his indictment, conviction and imprisonment in the article.

Mike Bloomberg, the 108th mayor of New York, was another hero of criminal history. His project to computerize the city’s timekeeping system, CityTime, became a hotbed of fraud and corruption.

However, the investigation into illegal campaign fundraising by former mayor Bill de Blasio did not lead to charges in 2017. He was even re-elected mayor after that.

Therefore, let’s see how the story with Eric Adams ends and whether he will be able to save face and his place in the New York City Hall.