New York Mayor charged with bribery over trip to India

New York: Eric Adams, the outspoken Mayor of the largest US city, has been charged with bribery and campaign financing irregularities by Federal prosecutors, and one of the allegations relates to a trip he took to India.

The charges released on Thursday said that after he purchased economy class tickets for himself and his domestic partner to India in 2016 on Turkish Airlines he accepted upgrades to business class, which prosecutors assert was valued at nearly $13,000 that he did not disclose receiving it in his official filings.

The prosecutors put the amounts he illegally benefitted from at $100,000.

No one connected to India is mentioned in the indictment which centres on his alleged ties to Turkey.

Most of the allegations, including that about the trip to India, relate to the period he was the President of the city’s Brooklyn borough before he became Mayor in 2022.

Adams, who is African-American — only the second from the community of the city’s 110 Mayors — and is a Democrat.

However, he has been at odds with the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, criticising their border policies that let in more than 12 million illegal immigrants overwhelming New York and other cities.

In a statement professing his innocence, he cited his criticism of the Federal government’s inaction on “its broken immigration policies”.

On a day he was on his way to Washington to lead a group of Mayors in a protest over the fallout of illegal immigration, Federal agents launched a search of the house of his campaign finance official causing him to abandon the protest and turn back to New York.

A former police captain, he has also been tough on crime, drawing criticism from the party’s Left and at variance to some of the lenient policies that Harris had once advocated.

The Turkish government, businesses, educational institutions, and local administrations allegedly gave him free hospitality and funneled campaign contributions illegally to him through third parties.

Besides his trip to India, he is alleged to have received free tickets, upgrades, or hospitality for visits to Turkey, China, Hungary, and Sri Lanka

In return, among other things, he helped the 36-storey Turkish Consulate tower get a fire department clearance, according to the indictment.

The charges against him were unveiled two days after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan severely criticised the West in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

The city of 8.25 million people has been in turmoil for several weeks with several top officials, including the Police Commissioner and the schools Chancellor resigning after they came under investigations.

The Federal prosecutors have been going after foreign interference in US politics occurring in the New York area.

Earlier this month, Linda Sun, a former senior aide to Governor Kathy Hochul was arrested and charged with secretly wporking for China.

In May, Bob Menendez, a powerful Senator who headed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was convicted on bribery charges relating to his illegal collaborations with Egypt and Qatar.

At a flag-hoisting ceremony honouring India’s Independence last month, he recalled his visit to the country.

He said, “I recall in my trip to India, and the most significant part of that trip that I remember, I remember watching the last footsteps of our leader, Gandhi, and where the assassin took his life, and how we have a responsibility and obligation to continue those footsteps.”

IANS