Eric Adams has had interactions with Turkey-linked organizations and individuals dating back to at least 2011, when he was a Brooklyn state senator. He began developing deeper ties to New York City’s Turkish community in the run up to his 2013 campaign for Brooklyn borough president, as well as when he served in that role from 2014 through his 2021 mayoral campaign. He has boasted of having made at least six trips to Turkey; at least two of those trips were paid for by the Turkish government or other Turkish organizations, and over the years Adams has frequently hosted or attended events with Turkish nationals, Turkish American businesspeople, and members of the Turkish government.
Several of these links have received greater scrutiny in light of the federal investigation.
On November 2, federal agents also reportedly raided the offices of KSK Construction, a Brooklyn-based company founded by a Turkish national. Investigators have focused on donations made by employees of the firm during a 2021 fundraiser for Adams’s mayoral campaign.
Investigators have also reportedly taken an interest in any ties between the Adams campaign and a Turkish-owned, D.C.-based nonprofit called Bay Atlantic University. People affiliated with the university made $10,000 in donations to Adams’s mayoral campaign that were subsequently returned.
And investigators have also reportedly examined Adams’s outreach to the New York City fire commissioner in 2021 on behalf of the Turkish consulate, which resulted in the consulate’s obtaining a temporary-occupancy permit for its new high-rise ahead of a grand opening ceremony attended by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Adams has defended the outreach as normal work on behalf of constituents.
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