Turkey in Mayor Adams latest straw donors scandal

New York Times 

Federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. are conducting a broad public corruption investigation into whether Mayor Eric Adams’s 2021 election campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations, according to a search warrant obtained by The New York Times.

The investigation burst into public view on Thursday when federal agents conducted an early-morning raid at the Brooklyn home of the mayor’s chief fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs. Ms. Suggs is a campaign consultant who is deeply entwined with efforts to advance the mayor’s agenda.

Investigators also sought to learn more about the potential involvement of a Brooklyn construction company with ties to Turkey, as well as a small university in Washington, D.C., that also has ties to the country and to Mr. Adams.

According to the search warrant, investigators were also focused on whether the mayor’s campaign kicked back benefits to the construction company’s officials and employees, and to Turkish officials.

The agents seized three iPhones and two laptop computers, along with papers and other evidence, including something agents identified as “manila folder labeled Eric Adams,” seven “contribution card binders” and other materials, according to the documents.

There was no indication that the investigation was targeting the mayor, and he is not accused of wrongdoing. Yet the raid apparently prompted him to abruptly cancel several meetings scheduled for Thursday morning in Washington, D.C., where he planned to speak with White House officials and members of Congress about the migrant crisis.

Instead, he hurriedly returned to New York “to deal with a matter,” a spokesman for the mayor said.

Appearing at a Día de Muertos celebration at Gracie Mansion on Thursday night, Mr. Adams defended his campaign, saying that he held it “to the highest ethical standards.”

He said he had not been contacted by any law enforcement officials, but pledged to cooperate in any inquiry. Mr. Adams said that he returned from Washington to be “on the ground” to “look at this inquiry” as it unfolded.

The warrant suggested that some of the foreign campaign contributions were made as part of a straw donor scheme, where donations are made in the names of people who did not actually give money. Investigators sought evidence to support potential charges that included the theft of federal funds and conspiracy to steal federal funds, wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy, as well as campaign contributions by foreign nationals and conspiracy to make such contributions.

Mr. Adams has boasted of his ties to Turkey, most recently during a flag-raising he hosted for the country in Lower Manhattan last week. The mayor said that there were probably no other mayors in New York City history who had visited Turkey as frequently as he has.

“I think I’m on my sixth or seventh visit,” he said. At least one of those visits happened while he was Brooklyn borough president, when the government of Turkey underwrote the excursion, The Daily News reported.

Ms. Suggs, who could not be reached for comment, is an essential cog in Mr. Adams’s fund-raising machine, which has already raised more than $2.5 million for his 2025 re-election campaign.

A person with knowledge of the raid said agents from one of the public corruption squads in the F.B.I.’s New York office questioned Ms. Suggs during the search of her home.

An F.B.I. spokesman confirmed that “we are at that location carrying out law enforcement action,” referring to Ms. Suggs’s home in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

The agents also served Ms. Suggs with a subpoena directing her to testify before a federal grand jury hearing evidence in Manhattan.

Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, declined to comment.

The construction company was identified in the warrant, portions of which were obtained by The Times, as KSK Construction Group in Brooklyn. Individuals who listed their employer as KSK donated nearly $14,000 to Mr. Adams’s 2021 campaign, according to campaign finance records. A person who answered the telephone at the company declined to comment.

Charles Kretchmer Lutvak, a spokesman for Mr. Adams, said Ms. Suggs was not an employee of City Hall and referred calls to the mayor’s campaign team.

“The campaign has always held itself to the highest standards,” said Vito Pitta, a lawyer for Mr. Adams’s 2021 and 2025 campaigns. “The campaign will of course comply with any inquiries, as appropriate.”

Mr. Pitta added: “Mayor Adams has not been contacted as part of this inquiry.”

The search warrant sought financial records for Ms. Suggs and any entity controlled or associated with her; documents related to contributions to the mayor’s 2021 campaign; records of travel to Turkey by any employee, officer or associate of the campaign; and documents related to interactions between the campaign and the government of Turkey, “including persons acting at the behest of the Turkish government.”

Investigators specified documents relating to Bay Atlantic University, a tiny Turkish-owned institution that opened in Washington, D.C., in 2014. The following year, Mr. Adams visited one of the school’s sister universities in Istanbul, where he was given various certificates and was told that a scholarship would be created in his name.

The warrant also sought electronic devices, including cellphones, laptops or tablets used by Ms. Suggs.

THE CITY  

 Internal documents obtained by THE CITY show that city regulators repeatedly asked Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign about a cluster of donations that are now part of a federal probe into one of the mayor’s top fundraisers.

The investigation, which triggered an FBI raid at the home of Adams’ campaign operative Brianna Suggs on Thursday, is examining contributions to the mayor’s 2021 campaign that came from employees of KSK Construction Company, a Brooklyn-based firm whose founders hail from Turkey, according to The New York Times.

The Times reported that the federal government is looking into whether the Adams team worked with the construction company and the Turkish government to inject foreign money into the campaign using straw donors — people listed as having donated but who did not actually contribute or who were reimbursed for their donations. 

Adams, who is not known to be a target of the probe, has said he’s traveled to Turkey at least a half dozen times, including twice over a five-month span in 2015 when he served as Brooklyn Borough President.

The KSK Construction employees donated at a May 7, 2021 fundraiser organized by an owner of the company, Erden Arkan, which was held at the home of Abraham Erdos in Brooklyn. Erdos, who was listed in Adams campaign finance filings as “retired,” had donated $2,000 to Adams’ mayoral campaign a year earlier. 

In total, the event raised $69,720 for Adams’ mayoral campaign from 84 donors, and the campaign used those donations to seek $63,760 in public matching funds, according to campaign documents obtained by THE CITY.

KSK did not respond to requests for comment via phone and email. But when contacted by THE CITY Thursday, multiple people listed in Adams 2021 campaign donation records as KSK employees either said they did not donate to Eric Adams or refused to state whether they had ever donated.

Sertac Varol, a Queens resident whose name appears in campaign records, told THE CITY that he did not recall donating to the Eric Adams campaign, and that he doesn’t believe he has ever donated to a political campaign in his life.

Abigal Nitka, a woman listed as a KSK engineer and lawyer, told THE CITY, “We’re innocent,” after declining to respond to questions.

Reached by phone, KSK employee Murat Mermer responded, “I don’t wanna comment.”

Arkan, an owner of KSK Construction, gave $1,500 to Adams’ campaign at the May 7, 2021, fundraiser, records show. He didn’t respond to a message sent via LinkedIn seeking comment, and an attorney who represented him in a recent real estate lawsuit didn’t respond to an email sent late Thursday.

KSK Construction is described in a construction publication as a 20-year-old spin-off of Kiska Construction, where Arkan and some of his partners previously worked. Kiska has been involved in a number of mammoth building projects across the city, according to the firm’s LinkedIn page, including the replacement of the Third Avenue Bridge over the Harlem River and creating the first section of the High Line park in Manhattan’s Chelsea. 

Records from New York City’s Campaign Finance Board show that board staff asked the Adams’ campaign six times over five months to explain who had connected the Adams campaign with 10 donations from KSK Construction employees totaling $12,700, all made at the May 2021 event weeks before Adams’ victory in the mayoral Democratic primary.

Campaigns are obligated to respond to such CFB inquiries within 30 days and explain their sources of funds, according to a Campaign Finance Board webinar. But in each instance, the Adams campaign failed to respond.

In a text message to THE CITY, Evan Thies, Adams’ 2021 campaign spokesperson, defended his team’s conduct. “As we have discussed extensively, contributors to campaign-sponsored events do not have intermediaries,” said Thies.  

He added, regarding the board’s inquiries: “None of those inquiries were flagged as possible straw donors. The inquiries were about possible unreported intermediaries, of which there were none required to be reported. The campaign appropriately responded to each and every flag made by the CFB as required.”

NY Post

The fundraiser whose Brooklyn home was raided as part of a federal probe into possible illegal contributions to Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign is a 25-year-old recent grad on a meteoric rise in New York City’s Democratic politics.

Brianna Suggs — who graduated from Brooklyn College with a Bachelor of Science in biology in 2020 — has close ties to the mayor’s inner circle, including to Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the so-called Lioness of City Hall who acts as Adams’ chief advisor and gatekeeper.

One source even described her as Lewis-Martin’s political “goddaughter.”

Suggs been touted as a key campaign consultant and fundraiser for Adams — but sources said the young operative’s lack of experience raised eyebrows during the 2021 mayoral race, with some attributing her apparently elevated status to her political connections.

“It was pretty clear she was there because of who she knew,” another source said, adding Suggs’ position was part of the “incestuous” Brooklyn political clubhouse.

“The guy was running for mayor so you’d think he would have some marquee fundraiser,” the source added.

Suggs was brought on as an intern at Brooklyn Borough Hall in 2017 when Adams was Borough President and Lewis-Martin was his deputy.

She was elevated to the post of special liaison the following year and worked on women’s health for the next three years, according to her LinkedIn.

The young political consultant then moved on to Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign, where she boasted of raising $18.4 million. His campaign spent a total of $18.5 million, according to campaign records.

She made more than $150,000 from the 2021 mayoral campaign and Adams’ 2025 re-election campaign, records show.

“She’s a close person [to Adams and Lewis-Martin] who might not be qualified for the job, that was the vibe,” the second source said.

“In the early days of Eric’s campaign as things got more serious they bought on some other folks,” the source said. “It was sorta odd some people would raise money through her and others with other folks. To have two people was weird and a little bit redundant.”