The number of investigations, allegations, trials and guilty pleas involving Mayor Eric Adams and his top aides has grown steadily over months.

The mayor himself has been indicted on federal corruption charges in Manhattan federal court. He has pleaded not guilty.

Adams was charged with acting as an uned foreign agent for taking actions in his official capacity after receiving donations from foreign nationals. That case is not the only one that has swirled around Adams and his top people.

His longtime chief advisor has first reported by THE CITY in September.

If you’re having a hard time keeping up, we don’t blame you. Here’s a cheat sheet:

How many federal investigations of the mayor and his people are there that we know of?

At least five, including three being led by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, which has jurisdiction over several downstate counties including Manhattan and The Bronx.

According to reporting by the Associated Press on Sept. 20, investigators subpoenaed the mayor’s head of the Office for Asylum Seeker Operations, Molly Schaeffer. But it is not clear if that action is connected to any of the below investigations.

Here are the basics on the ongoing federal probes that have come to light:

The Cabans

Led by investigators in the Southern District, reporting from NBC New York and the New York Post indicate that some of the most recent raids were part of a federal investigation into whether James, the police commissioner’s brother — who’s himself a former police officer — profited from his family connection by selling “consulting” services to nightclubs.  

On Sept. 12, Caban, who has denied any wrongdoing, resigned. His tenure was the shortest of any NYPD commissioner in three decades.

Banks Brothers

The September raids also included search warrants to take the electronic devices of three brothers: Schools Chancellor David Banks, Deputy Mayor Philip Banks III and Terence Banks, who previously worked for the MTA and now runs a consulting operation, Pearl Alliance. The searches also included First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, the partner of David Banks, and senior advisor Tim Pearson (more about him below).

As THE CITY has reported, there are indications federal authorities are looking at, among other things, the awarding of city contracts. 

Adams hired Pearson, a former NYPD inspector, to run a shadowy new agency overseeing hundreds of migrant-related contracts, including those with security guard firms. And federal investigators are also its “panic button” app, before hiring Terence and Pearl Alliance.

On Sept. 24, David Banks announced he would retire at the end of this year.

The New York Post reported that the city Department of Investigation and federal authorities are also looking at Philip Banks’ former company City Safe Watch and the $154 million contract it secured to provide services to the New York City Housing Authority.

Turkey Influence

When federal agents seized electronic devices from the mayor last year and searched the homes of Adams’ chief campaign fundraiser Brianna Suggs and Rana Abbasova, the director of protocol for the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs, they were looking at possible foreign links to City Hall.

According to previous reporting by the New York Times, the FBI was investigating whether the Adams team coordinated with Turkish groups and people tied to the government there to illegally inject foreign money into the campaign. (More on this later.)

On Sept. 23, the Times reported that the feds working on that case also made inquiries to City Hall through grand jury subpoenas for information about interactions with five other countries: Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan.

Connections to China

Separately, investigators in the Eastern District of New York (which includes Brooklyn and Queens) are looking into Adams’ travel to and ties with China. As part of that probe, in February, agents raided the offices of the New World Mall in Queens that hosted Adams campaign operations in 2021 and multiple Pelham Bay homes owned by Winnie Greco.

Greco, who was briefly on a leave for a medical episode during the FBI raid, remains the mayor’s Director of Asian Affairs, after years working and fundraising for Adams in a volunteer capacity, going back to his time as the Brooklyn borough president. Greco, who was involved in gotten a raise, our reporting shows.

Possible Church Business

According to reporting by NBC 4 New York on Sept. 19, investigators served subpoenas to the monsignor of a Brooklyn church over possible business with Adams’ former chief of staff, power broker Frank Carone. It is unclear the scope or nature of that probe, but sources told the outlet that the investigation is separate from the previously-mentioned federal cases.

What other allegations or investigations surrounding City Hall’s inner circle should I know about?

• Ingrid Lewis-Martin: The mayor’s closest aide and longtime chief advisor was indicted Dec. 19 by the Manhattan district attorney’s office on bribery and money-laundering charges. She was charged alongside her son, Glen Martin II, and two businessmen, Raizada (Pinky) Vaid and Mayank Dqivedi, and pleaded not guilty. The DA’s office charged that Lewis-Martin used her powerful position to grease the bureaucratic wheels for the businessmen, who needed help with city Department of Buildings permits and other city business. 
• Jeffrey Maddrey: The NYPD’s top uniformed police officer, Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, resigned on Dec. 20 after a subordinate filed a complaint alleging he pushed her into sexual favors in exchange for overtime pay at the NYPD. Adams has been a longtime defender of Maddrey, promoting him despite his checkered history within the police department.
• Tim Pearson: The long-time friend and senior advisor of the mayor has been hit with He resigned from his City Hall position on Sept. 30.
• Anthony Miranda: The long-time ally of Adams, who the mayor picked as the city’s sheriff in 2022, is now being probed by the city Department of Investigation, according to Politico. The outlet also reported that prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York has also investigated Miranda as early as last year, though the nature of that inquiry — or whether it is ongoing — is unclear.
• Thomas Donlon: Just a week after the mayor appointed him interim police commissioner — taking over after Caban resigned — Donlon revealed that federal agents searched his home on Sept. 20, reportedly in regards to documents in his possession from previous work and unrelated to the various ongoing federal probes of city officials.

Have any cases gone to court yet?

Yes. The mayor himself was indicted on Sept. 25, and his chief advisory, Lewis-Martin, was indicted in December. And while the FBI’s investigations have been ongoing, multiple cases tied to Adams, his 2021 mayoral campaign and his istration have moved forward. These have already led to charges, indictments and guilty pleas:

• The Fire Department’s fast-track list. In mid-September, federal prosecutors charged two high-level FDNY chiefs with using a City Hall practice of expediting fire inspections for favored building owners, including deep-pocketed donors to Mayor Adams, as cover for a scheme that secretly netted them shot to the top of the fast-track list.

• Alleged Buildings Department bribes. Former Adams buildings commissioner Eric Ulrich, accused of taking bribes, was indicted last year, also by Bragg’s office.

• Straw donations: Mushtaq brothers and Montgomery. Early in February, a longtime ally of Adams, former NYPD inspector Dwayne Montgomery, two others who pleaded guilty last summer in the same case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
  
• Straw donations: Turkey-linked construction firm. In December, the owner of the real estate construction firm KSK — which you can read more about below — pled guilty to conspiracy charges in connection with straw donations to Adams’ 2021 campaign, Gothamist reported.

• Straw donations: Chinese billionaire. In March, the Chinese media mogul and former nightclub owner Qin Hui pled guilty to illegally funneling more than $11,000 worth of donations to politicians in New York and Rhode Island, including Mayor Adams.
  
• Straw donations and obstruction: Uzbeki donations. Federal prosecutors charged an aide to Adams with witness tampering and destruction of evidence in connection with the federal corruption case against the mayor. The aide, Mohamed Bahi, allegedly solicited illegal straw donations from an Uzbeki businessman, then told them to lie to the FBI about doing so.

Wait, what’s a straw donor?

Straw donors are people who are listed in campaign records as having donated to a candidate, but who did not actually contribute that money or were reimbursed for it by someone else. New York City’s matching funds system creates an incentive to do that, since mayoral campaigns receive $8 in public funds for every $1 given by a city resident, up to $250. 

Big-money donors caught in past straw-donation schemes used them to push more cash into a campaign than they are legally allowed to give — by getting other people to illegally make donations for them.

Turkish connections: What to know

One ongoing federal investigation appears to center around whether the Adams team coordinated with various Turkish-linked groups, companies and people to inject foreign money into his campaign using straw donors. THE CITY has documented these instances of Adams campaign connections to Turkey:

• KSK Construction, a Brooklyn firm owned by Turkish nationals: City regulators repeatedly asked the Adams mayoral campaign about two New York City government corruption scandals. KSK’s owner, Erden Arkan, pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy relating to the straw-donation scheme in Manhattan federal court on Jan. 10, 2025, and faces a maximum of five years in prison. He’ll be sentenced on Aug. 15, Judge Dale Ho said.

• Bay Atlantic University, a small Turkish-owned institution based in Washington, D.C.: Before the FBI probe began looking into the transactions, the Adams campaign accepted and returned $10,000 in donations linked to the university.

• The Turken Foundation, incorporated by a son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with board including Erdogan’s daughter: Campaign records show that between 2018 and 2021, the Adams campaign received $6,000 from three U.S. citizens who are board of the charity. Adams’ interactions with the foundation go back to at least 2017, THE CITY found.

• THE CITY had previously reported that Abbasova coordinated a meeting between Adams and the Turken Foundation.

Is it a crime to get money from another county?

Yes, it is. Federal law bans foreign nationals and governments from donating to local, state or federal political campaigns.

What would Turkey — or any country — want from the mayor of New York City?

That’s a mystery yet to be solved. But broadly, we know that Adams has been a vocal er and friend to Turkey in the city for years — and reportedly is under scrutiny for helping Turkish officials with a major favor.

The New York Times reported in November 2023 that federal investigators are looking into whether Adams pressured the fire department to greenlight the opening of the newly constructed Turkish consulate weeks before he was elected mayor in 2021. At the opening, Turkish President Erdogan boasted that the skyscraper reflected Turkey’s “increased power.”

This all sounds familiar. Where have I seen this before?

Almost every modern mayor of the City of New York has been caught up in corruption investigations, but none until Adams have been charged with crimes. Here’s THE CITY’s guide to that history.

What happens if the mayor resigns? Can he be forced out?

Our full guide on those questions can be found here. The short answer: If Adams resigns, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would become interim mayor until a new mayor is chosen, likely through a special election.

On forced removal from office: The governor has the power to remove the mayor if it comes to that point, but no governor has ever taken that option. In 1932, then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt could have removed Mayor Jimmy Walker — the last mayor before Adams to go through three police commissioners in a single term — but Walker resigned instead.

There is also an option in the City Charter to have an “inability committee” recommend that the City Council vote to remove a sitting mayor. But, like the governor’s removal power, that path has never been taken.
Already, would-be challengers are announcing runs against Adams in 2025. (Here’s our guide on those candidates.)

Additional reporting by Katie Honan. This article was adapted from a previous version first published in 2023.

Have a question about the ongoing investigations of the Adams campaign or istration? Send a message to [email protected], or send a news tip to our reporters at [email protected].