Prominent Adams donor pleads guilty to illegal campaign contributions

January 10, 2025 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

New York City Mayor Eric Adams. exits from the US federal court house in New York, Friday, Nov. 01, 2024. AP Photo/Kena Betancur

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MANHATTAN – TURKISH-AMERICAN REAL estate businessman Erden Arkan pleaded guilty on Friday to playing a part in a scheme to direct illegal contributions to Mayor Adams’ election campaign, reports the Associated Press. Arkan in Manhattan federal court admitted to reimbursing employees of his company, KSK, for their individual donations to the Adams campaign, which were then allegedly used to apply for small-donor matching funds that the campaign would not otherwise have been eligible for. Prosecutors allege that Adams directly solicited the money from Arkan and a Turkish government official at a dinner in 2021.

The mayor’s trial on related charges continues, with a grand jury hearing new evidence in the case; his attorney, Alex Spiro, told the AP that Arkan’s admissions have “no bearing on the mayor’s case whatsoever.”

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