N.Y.C. Mayor Eric Adams Charged with Taking Foreign Bribes During His Rise to Power in Newly Unsealed Indictment

Mar. 15, 2025

New York City Mayor Eric Adams at the African American Day Parade in Harlem on Sept. 15, 2024.Photo:Spencer Platt/Getty

New York Mayor Eric Adams participates in the 55th annual African American Day Parade on September 15, 2024 in New York City. Thousands turned out for the annual event, including school bands, politicians, youth dance groups, and members of the police department. The parade made its way up through Harlem, the traditionally African American neighborhood of New York City, home to many prominent Black intellectuals, artists, and politicians. This year’s parade theme was “Good Leaders = Good Government.

Spencer Platt/Getty

New York City MayorEric Adamsis charged with five criminal counts relating to his alleged ties with foreign businessmen and a Turkish official who sought to influence his decision-making, according to a newly unsealedindictment.

“The conduct alleged in the indictment — the foreign money, the corporate money, the bribery, the years of concealment — is a grave breach of public trust,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams after the charges were revealed on Thursday, Sept. 26.

Alex Spiro, a celebrity lawyer whom Adams recently retained for his criminal case, is accusing federal investigators of putting on a show as the mayor maintains his innocence.

“We have known for some time that they would try to find a way to bring a case against Mayor Adams. Yesterday — more improper leaks. Today — they emailed us a summons (and created the spectacle of a bogus raid),” he tells PEOPLE in a statement, later adding: “We will see them in court.”

On Wednesday, Sept. 26, news broke that afederal corruption investigationinto New York City administrators had resulted in criminal charges against the mayor, though the specific charges remained sealed until Thursday.

Federal agents search Gracie Mansion, the official N.Y.C. mayor’s residence, on Sept. 26, 2024 — one day after Eric Adams was indicted on federal criminal charges.TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty

Federal agents search Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the mayor of New York City, on September 26, 2024, after Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on federal criminal charges.

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty

Adams, a former NYPD officer, waselected mayor in 2021after serving eight years as Brooklyn’s borough president and seven years as a state senator. Recently a series of officials in his administration have resigned or retired, some of whom had been roped into the federal probes.

The mayor is up for reelection in 2025, though a chorus of N.Y.C.-based leaders have called for him to immediately step down, including council members, state legislators, and CongresswomanAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City,” Ocasio-Cortezwrote on Xsoon after the indictment news dropped. “The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening gov [sic] function. Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration. For the good of the city, he should resign.”

N.Y.C. Mayor Eric Adams at the Labor Day Parade in Manhattan on Sept. 7, 2024.Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty

New York City Mayor Eric Adams attends the annual Labor Day Parade on September 7, 2024 in midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York. The FBI continued to seize the phones and make house raids of several top officials in the Adams administration earlier in the week, and its believed that there are four separate investigations into corruption in the Adams administration.

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty

Federal agents raided the home of Adams' former campaign fundraiser in November 2023, first revealing that a corruption investigation was underway.

TheTimesreported that investigators were looking to determine if Adams' mayoral campaign “kicked back benefits” to the construction company’s employees and officials from Turkey, according to the warrant.

N.Y.C. Mayor Eric Adams at a press conference on public safety on July 31, 2023.Michael M. Santiago/Getty

New York Mayor Eric Adams attends a press conference on gun violence prevention and public safety on July 31, 2023 in New York City

Michael M. Santiago/Getty

When the investigation ramped up in recent months, several top officials in Adams' administration had their homes raided and phones seized. The new indictment accuses him of engaging in an alleged decade-long scheme to accept “valuable benefits” from foreign actors in exchange for giving them influence.

“As Adams’s prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021, it became clear that Adams would become New York City’s mayor,” the indictment reads. “Adams agreed, providing favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received.”

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Later, when the Turkish official wanted to hurriedly open a new skyscraper consular building in New York City, Adams allegedly pressured the city’s fire department to skip a fire inspection so that it would not fail the test.

source: people.com

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