NYC Mayor’s Ties to Turkish Donors Under FBI Investigation

On 22 Decem­ber 2023, POLITICO report­ed that New York City May­or Eric Adams is fac­ing an FBI probe into his cam­paign’s con­nec­tions with Turk­ish donors. This inves­ti­ga­tion fol­lows the FBI raid on Brook­lyn’s KSK Con­struc­tion, scru­ti­niz­ing poten­tial col­lu­sion between Adams’ cam­paign and the Turk­ish gov­ern­ment. POLITI­CO’s analy­sis of cam­paign finance records revealed six indi­vid­u­als with ties to KSK founder Erden Arkan, con­tribut­ing a total of $10,400 to Adams’ may­oral cam­paigns. These con­tri­bu­tions might be eli­gi­ble for tax­pay­er-backed match­ing funds under the city’s cam­paign finance sys­tem. The find­ings deep­en the links between Adams’ cam­paign and the Turk­ish com­mu­ni­ty, amid Adams’ fre­quent inter­ac­tions with Turk­ish-Amer­i­can events. The inves­ti­ga­tion has seen aggres­sive FBI tac­tics, includ­ing the seizure of Adams’ elec­tron­ic devices, coin­cid­ing with a dip in his approval rat­ings. Adams main­tains his inno­cence, assert­ing adher­ence to cam­paign com­pli­ance stan­dards. The inves­ti­ga­tion rais­es ques­tions about poten­tial straw dona­tions and the legal­i­ty of the con­tri­bu­tions con­nect­ed to Turk­ish donors, com­pli­cat­ing Adams’ polit­i­cal landscape.