NY Watchdog Spotlights Turkish Influence in NYC Mayor Campaign Financing

Turkey’s elec­tion inter­fer­ence in New York City has been exposed through a Cam­paign Finance Board inves­ti­ga­tion reveal­ing exten­sive Turk­ish gov­ern­ment involve­ment in May­or Eric Adams’ polit­i­cal fundrais­ing oper­a­tions. On 7 August 2025, Abdul­lah Bozkurt report­ed that the NYC Cam­paign Finance Board issued a sup­ple­men­tal deter­mi­na­tion notice detail­ing how Turk­ish influ­ence per­me­at­ed Adams’ cam­paign through dona­tions from Turk­ish nation­als, ben­e­fits from state-linked enter­pris­es, and favors extend­ed to Pres­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s gov­ern­ment, mak­ing Adams inel­i­gi­ble for mil­lions in tax­pay­er match­ing funds. The arti­cle begins:

A recent notice by the New York City Cam­paign Finance Board (CFB) has once again drawn atten­tion to the gov­ern­ment of Pres­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erdo­gan and its involve­ment in a for­eign inter­fer­ence effort in the city’s may­oral elec­tion. The inves­ti­ga­tion cen­ters on dona­tions from Turk­ish nation­als, ben­e­fits from state-linked enter­pris­es and favors extend­ed to the Turk­ish gov­ern­ment. The CFB’s August 7 sup­ple­men­tal deter­mi­na­tion notice pro­vides a detailed account of how Turk­ish influ­ence per­me­at­ed May­or Eric Adams’ polit­i­cal fundraising

Read more: https://nordicmonitor.com/2025/08/new-york-watchdog-puts-a-new-spotlight-on-turkeys-meddling-in-us-elections/

Key Points

• The New York City Cam­paign Finance Board (CFB) has iden­ti­fied a pat­tern of ille­gal cam­paign dona­tions from Turk­ish nation­als and state-linked busi­ness­es to May­or Eric Adams, sig­nal­ing for­eign inter­fer­ence in US elections.

• Key fig­ures in the scheme include Turk­ish busi­ness­man Arda Sayın­er, who orga­nized fundrais­ers and act­ed as a con­duit for for­eign funds, and Bay Atlantic Uni­ver­si­ty own­er Enver Yücel, whose employ­ees made straw dona­tions at his direction.

• May­or Adams alleged­ly accept­ed free or dis­count­ed lux­u­ry trav­el from Turk­ish Air­lines (a state-owned enter­prise) and inter­vened with city agen­cies to ben­e­fit Turk­ish gov­ern­ment projects, rais­ing con­cerns about quid pro quo arrangements.

• Fed­er­al inves­ti­ga­tions and court records reveal that some Turk­ish donors were reim­bursed for their con­tri­bu­tions, and at least one co-con­spir­a­tor has plead­ed guilty to relat­ed charges, under­scor­ing the ille­gal nature of these activities.

Turkish and Chinese Influence Campaigns Target City Hall

Turk­ish influ­ence in the Unit­ed States has tar­get­ed NYC May­or Eric Adams through a years-long effort involv­ing alleged­ly ille­gal con­tri­bu­tions, lux­u­ry trav­el, and inter­ven­tions on behalf of Turk­ish gov­ern­ment inter­ests in New York. In 2021, the GIOR report­ed that the then NYC may­oral can­di­date had received dona­tions from Turk­ish-Amer­i­can influ­ence group lead­ers such as Murat Guzel and Behram Turan, both close­ly tied to Pres­i­dent Erdogan’s gov­ern­ment. Adams’ cam­paign team attend­ed events host­ed by the Turk­ish Con­sulate Gen­er­al and trav­eled to Turkey on offi­cial visits.

These con­nec­tions mir­ror a broad­er pat­tern of Turk­ish state-linked actors wield­ing finan­cial and diplo­mat­ic lever­age over local elect­ed offi­cials in the US, as detailed by exter­nal inves­ti­ga­tors and jour­nal­ists. Accord­ing to Nordic Mon­i­tor, Adams alleged­ly also inter­vened with city agen­cies to fast-track approvals for Turk­ish projects, accept­ed free lux­u­ry trav­el from Turk­ish Air­lines, and had his cam­paign boost­ed by ille­gal dona­tions from Turk­ish nationals—activities that led city and fed­er­al author­i­ties to ques­tion the prop­er sep­a­ra­tion between local gov­er­nance and for­eign gov­ern­ment interests.

In March 2025, GIOR report­ed that fed­er­al agents had searched prop­er­ties of Win­nie Gre­co, Adams’s Asian affairs advis­er, seek­ing evi­dence of ille­gal for­eign con­tri­bu­tions and poten­tial Chi­nese gov­ern­ment influ­ence. Sim­i­lar search­es tar­get­ed Lian Wu Shao, whose New World Mall in Queens host­ed numer­ous Adams fundrais­ers that gen­er­at­ed irreg­u­lar dona­tion pat­terns. While Adams has not been con­vict­ed of any crime, and fed­er­al charges against him were dis­missed in April 2025 fol­low­ing inter­ven­tion by the Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump-led Jus­tice Depart­ment, the CFB’s find­ings leave him under a cloud of suspicion.

The GIOR report­ed on Sep­tem­ber 2 that Chi­na has been found to influ­ence New York City elec­tions through sys­tem­at­ic oper­a­tions tar­get­ing local politi­cians who oppose Beijing’s policies.

Exter­nal Ref­er­ences:

• 2025 Pub­lic Funds Pay­ment Deter­mi­na­tion Sup­ple­men­tal Notice

• The Turk­ish Tow­er at the Heart of the Eric Adams Allegations

• What to Know About Cor­rup­tion Inves­ti­ga­tions Sur­round­ing Eric Adams

• Opin­ion: Adams indict­ment high­lights grow­ing Turk­ish influ­ence in the US

• Judge per­ma­nent­ly dis­miss­es crim­i­nal case against NYC mayor

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.