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Federal authorities investigating Mayor Eric Adams’s campaign fund-raising have been examining valuable flight upgrades they believe he received from Turkish Airlines that elevated him to its highest class of seats available on international trips, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The scrutiny is part of a broad corruption inquiry that has already led the F.B.I. to search the homes of the former top New York-based executive of Turkish Airlines and aides to Mr. Adams, who has frequently traveled abroad and has made no secret of his affinity for flying on the Turkish carrier. agents searched the homes of the former airline executive, Cenk Öcal, the mayor’s liaison to the Turkish community, Rana Abbasova, and his chief fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs — and seized Mr. Adams’s electronic devices. The inquiry has shaken an administration that has become increasingly mired in investigations and beset by legal and ethical problems.

Persons: Eric Adams’s, Adams, Cenk Öcal, Rana Abbasova, Brianna Suggs — Organizations: Turkish Airlines Locations: New York

Mayor Eric Adams of New York said on Tuesday that the 25-year-old woman he had chosen to manage his political fund-raising was no longer working in that role, weeks after a search of her home by the F.B.I. revealed a federal investigation into his campaign and plunged his administration into turmoil. The announcement by Mr. Adams was something of a reversal: He had previously said he had “full confidence” in the fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs, adding that she was qualified for the job and that he would love for her to remain on his team. At his weekly press briefing on Tuesday, Mr. Adams declined to explain the reasons for the change, saying as he often does that he would not discuss private conversations. “She is no longer doing fund-raising for the campaign,” Mr. Adams said, in response to a question from a reporter.

Persons: Eric Adams, Adams, Brianna Suggs, ” Mr Locations: New York

The coordinated raids were the first public sign of a broad corruption investigation into the mayor’s 2021 campaign. and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are examining whether the Turkish government conspired with Mr. Adams’s campaign to funnel foreign donations into campaign coffers and whether Mr. Adams pressured Fire Department officials to sign off on a new high-rise Turkish consulate despite safety concerns. Both Ms. Abbasova and Mr. Öcal have ties to Turkey. She was Mr. Adams’s longtime liaison to the Turkish community when he served as Brooklyn borough president; he was the general manager of the New York office of Turkish Airlines until early last year. Ms. Abbasova, Mr. Öcal, Ms. Suggs and Mr. Adams have not been accused of wrongdoing.

Persons: Eric Adams’s, Brianna Suggs, Rana Abbasova, Cenk, Adams, Abbasova, Öcal, Adams’s, Suggs Organizations: Turkish Airlines, Fire Department, New Locations: Turkey, New Jersey, Manhattan, Turkish, Brooklyn, New York

Mr. Adams already had a long-running relationship with the Turkish consulate general, which paid for part of his trip to Turkey while he was Brooklyn borough president in 2015, according to a public filing. The warrant to search the home of Mr. Adams’s 25-year-old fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs, indicated that the investigation was examining the role of KSK Construction, a Brooklyn building company owned by Turkish immigrants that organized a fund-raising event for Mr. Adams on May 7, 2021. On that day, 48 donors, including the company’s owners, employees and their families, along with others in the construction and real estate industries, donated $43,600, Mr. Adams’s campaign reports show. Mr. Adams’s campaign filings do not specify which donations were made through the fund-raising event. Neither Mr. Adams nor his campaign has been accused of wrongdoing, and no charges are publicly known to have been filed in connection with the investigation.

Persons: Adams, York City’s, Adams’s, Brianna Suggs, Suggs Organizations: Fire Department, Mr, Democratic Locations: Brooklyn, Manhattan, York, Turkish, Turkey

☆ FBI agents seized New York mayor's electronic devices
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Karen Toro/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNEW YORK, Nov 10 (Reuters) - FBI agents seized electronic devices from New York City Mayor Eric Adams earlier this week, days after a raid on the home of his chief campaign fundraiser, according to an attorney for the mayor's campaign. Boyd Johnson, an attorney for Adams' campaign, confirmed on Friday that Adams had provided the FBI with electronic devices after agents approached the mayor following an event on Monday night. Johnson said the FBI requested the devices after Adams informed investigators of impropriety by an unidentified individual. The devices seized from the mayor - at least two cellphones and an iPad - were returned within a matter of days, the Times said. Adams' 2025 election campaign has paid Suggs's consulting firm, Suggs Solutions, about $98,000 so far, public records show.

Persons: Eric Adams, Gustavo Manrique, Karen Toro, Boyd Johnson, Adams, Johnson, Brianna Suggs, Attorney Alvin Bragg, Suggs, Julia Harte, Jasper Ward, Diane Craft Organizations: York City, Ecuadorian, Foreign Affairs, Human, REUTERS, FBI, New York City, New York Times, Times, Attorney, Suggs Solutions, New York Daily News, Democrat, U.S, Thomson Locations: York, Quito, Ecuador, New York, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Washington

☆ FBI seizes New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ phones as part of federal investigation into fundraising
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Kara Scannell | Gloria Pazmino | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —FBI agents seized the cell phones of New York City Mayor Eric Adams as part of a federal investigation into campaign fundraising, a person familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday. The agents seized the phones and an iPad earlier this week pursuant to a court authorized search warrant, the person said. The seizure is a dramatic escalation of the federal probe into whether foreign money was funneled to his campaign, bringing it directly to the mayor, a Democrat. The investigation is being handled by the FBI and the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. “The mayor has not been accused of any wrongdoing and continues to cooperate with the investigation,” he added.

Persons: Eric Adams, Adams, Adams ’, “, ” Adams, Boyd Johnson, ” Johnson, ”, Brianna Suggs, –, Sen, Bob Menendez, Menendez, CNN’s John Miller, Paul P, Murphy, Jeff Winter, Mark Morales Organizations: CNN, FBI, New, New York City, Democrat, US, Southern, of, New York Times, Brooklyn, Turkish, New Jersey Democrat Locations: New York, of New York, Turkey, Brooklyn, New, Turkish, Lower Manhattan, Üsküdar, New Jersey

“It would really shock me if someone that was hired by my campaign did something that’s inappropriate,” Adams said, flanked by eight of his top deputies in City Hall. Lisa Zornberg, chief counsel at City Hall, confirmed the Adams administration was also in touch with federal prosecutors in Manhattan about the matter, though she declined to go into detail about their communications. A spokesperson for Adams’ campaign previously said they had not been contacted about the raid. Brendan McGuire, the attorney hired to represent Adams, also not respond to an inquiry. I just strongly believe you have to follow the law.”Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, declined to comment.

Persons: Eric Adams, ” Adams, “, ”, WilmerHale, Lisa Zornberg, Adams, Brianna Suggs, Suggs, I’m, ” Suggs, Brendan McGuire, ‘, ’ ”, ” Nicholas Biase Organizations: City Hall, New York Times, FBI, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Borough Hall, “ Locations: City Hall, Manhattan

The choice was unconventional: Eric Adams, the candidate who would go on to win the 2021 election for mayor of the nation’s financial capital, had picked an inexperienced 23-year-old to run his campaign’s fund-raising operation. Ostensibly, the fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs, did her job. Thanks in part to her work, the campaign would spend more than $18 million and win the election. But the unusual arrangement, which raised eyebrows in the tight-knit, professional world of Democratic political fund-raising, might have come at an extraordinary cost. On Thursday morning, federal agents raided Ms. Suggs’s home in Brooklyn and walked away with a wide range of materials, including three iPhones, two laptop computers and a manila folder labeled “Eric Adams.” The court-authorized search was part of an expansive public corruption investigation into whether the campaign conspired with the government of Turkey to receive illegal foreign donations.

Persons: Eric Adams, Brianna Suggs, Suggs’s, ” Organizations: Democratic Locations: Brooklyn, manila, Turkey

It is a type of scheme that took down New York’s lieutenant governor last year, and sank the 2013 mayoral campaign of a top Democratic contender: the use of so-called straw donors to funnel illegal contributions to candidates from secret sources. Now, for the second time, the campaign of Mayor Eric Adams is being scrutinized for the same thing. And in July, six men were indicted in Manhattan in connection with a similar scheme, accused of funneling thousands to Mr. Adams’s campaign. Neither Mr. Adams nor Ms. Suggs have been accused of wrongdoing, and Mr. Adams has denied any knowledge of illegal contributions. But both investigations appear to be focused on whether donors who were eager to get Mr. Adams’s attention sought to mask large donations by funneling them through straw donors — and on who might have coordinated that effort.

Persons: Eric Adams, Brianna Suggs, Adams’s, Adams, Suggs Locations: Turkish, U.S, Manhattan

☆ FBI raids home of fundraiser for NYC Mayor Eric Adams
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Reuters Editorial | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

PoliticsFBI raids home of fundraiser for NYC Mayor Eric AdamsPostedFBI agents searched the home of New York City Mayor Eric Adams' chief election campaign fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, on Thursday (November 3), and she was questioned by public corruption investigators, city officials and local media reported. Ryan Chang reports.

Persons: NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Eric Adams, Brianna Suggs, Ryan Chang Organizations: FBI, NYC Mayor, New York City Locations: New York

New York (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams denied any involvement in illegal political fundraising Friday, but his campaign pledged it would review its books, a day after federal agents raided the home of one of the Democrat's chief fundraisers. “I am outraged and angry if anyone attempted to use the campaign to manipulate our democracy and defraud our campaign," Adams said in a statement on Friday. Political Cartoons View All 1234 Images“I want to be clear, I have no knowledge, direct or otherwise, of any improper fundraising activity — and certainly not of any foreign money,” Adams said. Four construction officials were charged in the scheme, as was a former NYPD commander who had known the mayor for decades. “But it should always be a concern when the Department of Justice is investigating any aspect of your campaign.”

Persons: Eric Adams, “, Adams, Vito Pitta, Brianna Suggs, ” Adams, Suggs, Attorney Alvin Bragg, Eric Ulrich, ”, Carrie Cohen Organizations: —, — New York City, White, New York Times, KSK, Washington , D.C, Associated Press, Attorney, NYPD, Department of Justice Locations: York, — New York, Brooklyn, Washington, New York, U.S, Manhattan, Turkey, Washington ,, Turkish

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday searched the Brooklyn home of Mayor Eric Adams’s chief fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs, a campaign consultant who is deeply entwined with efforts to advance the mayor’s agenda, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The raid apparently prompted Mr. Adams to abruptly cancel several meetings scheduled for Thursday morning in Washington, D.C., to talk to White House officials and members of Congress about the influx of migrants in New York and other major cities. Instead, he hurriedly returned to New York “to deal with a matter,” a spokesman for the mayor said. Ms. Suggs, who could not immediately 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 third 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.

Persons: Eric Adams’s, Brianna Suggs, Adams, New York “, ”, Suggs, Adams’s, Ms Organizations: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington , D.C, White House Locations: Brooklyn, Washington ,, New York

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal agents on Thursday raided the home of a top fundraiser and longtime confidante to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who abruptly ditched a planned White House meeting and flew home from Washington. The official declined to say whether Suggs was the target of an investigation. Vito Pitta, an attorney for the Adams campaign, said the mayor was not contacted as part of the inquiry. A spokesperson for City Hall declined to comment on the cancellations, deferring comment on the raid to the Adams campaign. In July, six people were charged in a straw donor conspiracy scheme to divert tens of thousands of dollars to Adams’ campaign.

Persons: Eric Adams, Brianna Suggs, Suggs, Vito Pitta, Adams, ” Suggs, Christopher Burwell, FBI windbreakers, Nicholas Biase, –, Eric Ulrich, Ulrich, ___ Balsamo Organizations: —, New York City, Agents, Associated Press, Washington D.C, White House, City Hall, Brooklyn Borough, FBI Locations: New York, Washington, Brooklyn, New York City, Denver, Chicago, Chinatown, Sugg’s, Manhattan

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