New York Mayor Eric Adams is accused of fraud, bribery and accepting illegal donations. The focus is on the Turkish national airline.
Eric Adams has been the Mayor of New York City since January 2022. But did everything go well there? A current lawsuit against a Democratic politician casts doubt on this. The allegations go back up to ten years. At the time, the former police officer was the mayor of the borough of Brooklyn.
Adams is charged with fraud, bribery and accepting illegal campaign contributions. And the Turkish national airline is also at the center of the allegations.
Grants from the Turkish government
Not only has Adams received illegal campaign contributions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Turkish government. According to the suit, a senior Turkish official also regularly arranged free or discounted flights on Turkish Airlines worth tens of thousands of dollars for Adams and his associates. Among them were France, China, Sri Lanka, India, Hungary and Turkey itself.
Turkish Airlines is not named in the indictment. There they refer to “the national airline of Türkiye” or “the Turkish airline” – which in turn leads to the conclusion that it is Turkish Airlines.
Fake receipts issued?
The mayor’s flights to Turkey began in 2015. According to prosecutors, a Turkish diplomat allegedly brought Adams with an airline representative in New York City that year. Free business class travel in 2015 was reported to the New York government, according to investigators, but Adams took steps to conceal the travel benefits in subsequent years. However, according to the indictment, it was only then that he received “heavily discounted and free” flights with the airline.
This happened because he did not list everything in the financial reports he had to submit as an employee in the city of New York. Adams is accused of instructing employees to create “fake receipts” designed to make it appear he intended to pay for trips that were free.
Free hotels too
The prosecution will also produce short messages between Adams and his partner. When she once surprised her that he was in Turkey even though he was planning a trip to France, he wrote: “You know Istanbul is always the first stop. ” In addition, when it came to booking a vacation trip to Easter Island, he asked her to find out if it was possible with a Turkish. However, the airline does not fly to the destination.
Adams apparently said several times that he wanted to pay for the tickets. But information about how this happened is uncertain. On the one hand, he said he left money in an envelope for an employee to send to Turkish Airline. Another statement mentioned a credit card. According to the prosecutors, the airline did not receive any payment. In addition, Adams would regularly stay in expensive hotel rooms for free in Turkey – including the Bentley Suite at the St. Regis, which costs about $7,000 per night.
Fire officials are under pressure
What is particularly noteworthy is that Adams is accused of paying differently for the flights. In September 2021, the Turkish caller told him it was time to return the favor. Adams was supposed to pressure the New York City Fire Department to allow the Turkish consulate building – a 36-story skyscraper – to open without a fire inspection, in time for a visit by the Turkish president. At this point the property would have failed inspection.
Adams surrendered, according to the indictment. Because of the pressure he put on him, the officer in charge of the skyscraper’s fire safety was told that he would lose his job if he did not comply.
Adams denies the allegations
The mayor denies all allegations. He never accepted illegal donations from abroad. All allegations are completely false and based on lies. Turkish Airlines has not commented on the matter yet.
2024-09-28 06:30:00
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