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February 19, 2025 6:08 pm
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams denies any wrongdoing in probe, calls allegations part of a smear campaign.
Borough President Eric Adams denies any wrongdoing at City Hall corruption hearing.
— New York Times reporting in headline here.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has gained national attention as one of the most serious 2021 candidates for mayor by calling for an end to policies that led to homegrown terrorist attacks in the city, speaking about his own struggles with poverty, and promising to increase the police force in a city plagued by violent crime.
But in a corruption hearing on March 1, Adams – known for his charisma and political savvy – will face questions about what, if anything, senators deem suspicious and allegations of him potentially accepting gifts in exchange for political support.
At a hearing in 2013, Adams admitted that he took gifts from a business owner, The New York Post reported. He admitted to accepting tickets to a basketball game, a discounted ride in a helicopter and a trip to Florida from Frank Carone, a wealthy owner of an environmental cleanup and demolition firm, without proper disclosure. The council later reprimanded him. A Manhattan federal judge is overseeing the latest investigation which is led by Preet Bharara, in the investigation over an indictment on political donations.
At a corruption hearing in 2013, Eric Adams admitted to taking gifts from a business owner, including tickets to a basketball game, a discounted ride in a helicopter and a trip to Florida from Frank Carone, a wealthy owner of an environmental cleanup and demolition firm, without proper disclosure. The council later reprimanded him.
Nearly a dozen others who have previously served as City Council speaker face federal indictments, according to prosecutors, including former City Council speaker Christine Quinn and City Councilman Daniel Garodnick. Whether the allegations against Adams are as serious as those against them has been the subject of much debate. Adams intends on pleading not guilty.
Senators have been meeting with aides and attorneys from Brooklyn Borough Hall to determine Adams’ involvement in the city’s oversized gift law, and how it might be implicated in any inquiry.
Prosecutors have already sought testimony from a former Assembly member who claimed, but did not offer sworn testimony to support this claim, that Adams accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to help Carone on real estate issues. Adams’ staff has asked him about his morality in campaign contributions and an alleged affair with State Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn), whose wife, the former mayor and Brooklyn Democratic Party leader Tiffany Stewart, was an adviser to Adams’ council office. Adams has denied any affair.
Prosecutors have been in discussions with Bishop Herbert Daughtry, who oversees the Brooklyn Democratic Party and has been a longtime mentor and contributor to the borough president’s political career. Daughtry allegedly hired Adams for a high-salary job at One Hundred Black Men, a nonprofit. Adams, who has no apparent experience in nonprofits, attributes the hiring to connections to former Mayor David I. Dinkins, a friend he met while studying at Broadway High School.
In his testimony, Daughtry also raised questions about whether his lobbying firm, the Capital Resource Group, which works to allocate state funding for affordable housing, received any fundraising benefits from federal indictments relating to state government corruption or state agencies and companies receiving aid.
The Senate Democrats have also been monitoring other nonprofits receiving state aid, according to two Senate sources.
Adams is alleged to have received more than $7,000 in contributions and campaign consultations from the Fifth Avenue Committee and Brooklyn Academy of Science in federal indictments that led to state investigations related to the District Attorney’s Office. At the same time, the Fifth Avenue Academy received $4 million in state money for new construction.
Both Fifth Avenue Academy and Brooklyn Academy of Science have since sued AmeriFirst, a disgraced firm that was indicted in separate schemes for defrauding the federal government and wire fraud in federal investigations. Both firms also raised questions about whether the Fifth Avenue Academy and Brooklyn Academy of Science are being investigated for sensitive payments to AmeriFirst, according to a source familiar with the investigations.
An arbitrator condemned Fifth Avenue Academy, which claimed that private donors had directed millions of dollars in contributions to the Brooklyn Academy of Science, forcing it to raise its rent.
Both the Fifth Avenue Academy and Brooklyn Academy of Science have been accused of diverting money for sensitive purposes.
Loud murmurs in both Kathy Hochul’s and Andrew Cuomo’s inner circles, sources say, describe a growing opposition to Adams for the scandal tied to the senate hearing.
Cuomo’s top aide Craig Gurley made comments that suggested that Hochul would champion former Brooklyn state senator Diana Diaconis (D-Brooklyn) ahead of the effort to replace Cuomo.
Adams intends to present at the corruption hearing next week to plead not guilty, according to a source close to him.
The source said that Adams has turned his life around and reformed himself from a troubled youth to a dedicated public servant who is now the borough president.
Further, the source said that Adams, who has been raising private fundraising for his first campaign, has been making contributions to multiple political candidates, including state Assemb. (D-Brooklyn) Robert Carroll and (D-Brooklyn) Jeffrey Dinowitz, as well as Cuomo’s 2018 campaign. ^[1] Richard A. Baker. “$1M Retirement For Indicted Christine Quinn?” The New York Post, March 5, 2013. ^[2] Frank Denton. “Chavkin: In The Pool Of Sorts?” The New York Post, March 6, 2013. Prosecutors have been asking questions about how former Brooklyn councilman in the role of City Council speaker handled over $2.2 million in political donations made to his council campaigns, including acquiring property, which may have ties to the investigation.
How have senators been monitoring nonprofits receiving state aid, and what other investigations are they looking into related to state government corruption?
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