A donor to Eric Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign told THE CITY that their boss reimbursed them for a contribution recorded at an event that is at the center of the federal probe into whether the campaign conspired with the Turkish government to accept unlawful foreign donations. 

Such a reimbursement would constitute an illegal “straw donation,” enabling the true source of the funding to remain unknown in an effort to evade campaign finance laws that set limits on who can give and how much they can donate. 

The Adams campaign reported that it received the individual’s contribution at a May 7, 2021, fundraiser organized by an owner of KSK Construction Group, a Turkish-American company now facing scrutiny from the FBI. 

In two detailed interviews, the donor said their supervisor asked them to make the contribution, despite the donor’s reservations about their citizenship status and financial precarity.

“The boss request the check, and, well, you know, I want to maintain my work,” the donor said in a phone interview. “I said, well, I don’t have the money. I’m not going to give money to anybody because, first of all, I’m not a citizen.”

Still, the employee recalled, the supervisor persisted in requesting a check — and then provided them with a cash reimbursement at their workplace.

“He gave me the money in cash because it’s obviously not going to come from my pocket,” the employee said.

It is unclear if the donor’s contribution is related to any effort to conceal money from Turkish nationals. 

The Adams donor who was reimbursed asked for anonymity out of concern over their job and vulnerability as a non-citizen. They added that they did not attend the fundraiser and did not even know about it — and that the supervisor didn’t explain why he asked for the contribution.

Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York are handling the probe, which has led to the seizure of the mayor’s iPad and phones. The FBI has specifically sought evidence on payments or reimbursements given to employees of KSK “or other persons serving as conduits for campaign contributions to the Adams Campaign originating from Turkish nationals,” according to a warrant seen by The New York Times.

Neither Adams nor anyone in the campaign has been charged with wrongdoing and the mayor has defended his campaign and maintained that he has done nothing wrong. 

In response to questions from THE CITY about the self-admitted straw donor, Vito Pitta, Adams’ campaign counsel, said his team “had a process for rigorously checking every contribution, including verifying that the information given to us is accurate and in compliance with the law.”

Referring to the contribution forms the city Campaign Finance Board requires donors to sign, “Everyone who gave to the campaign formally affirmed that they were contributing their own funds and were not being reimbursed,” Pitta added.

Tens of Thousands Raised 

The interview with the self-described straw donor was one of dozens conducted by THE CITY with people whose donations the Adams campaign reported as having received at the fundraiser, organized by Erden Arkan, one of KSK’s owners, at Abraham Erdos’ home in Brooklyn. 

Erdos, who the Adams’ campaign declined to comment about, was listed in finance filings as “retired” and had donated $2,000 to Adams a year earlier. The event raised $69,720 in private funds plus nearly $63,760 in potential public matching funds, according to records obtained from the Campaign Finance Board.

Eight listed donors refused to comment. Nine reported they gave to Adams either online or at other fundraising events that took place at other times and locations, but said they hadn’t attended the fundraiser organized by the KSK co-owner.

The Adams campaign did not respond to a question about who had bundled together the contributions it received from the fundraiser. Asked about who on the campaign team had submitted information about the donations to the city’s Campaign Finance Board, Pitta said, “We cannot comment on the details of a federal investigation and an ongoing audit — but we are confident all rules and laws were followed.”

Campaign finance records, obtained by THE CITY through a public records request, raise questions about the participation of one KSK partner, listed as a company principal in campaign finance records.

Sertac Varol, a partner at KSK and a listed contributor to the event, previously told THE CITY that he did not recall giving to the Adams campaign and that he did not think he had ever donated to a political campaign.

“That time, my wife [had] cancer and I was busy with her treatment, and it was a kind of a lost year for me,” Vertac told THE CITY.

But a Campaign Finance Board filing accompanying the check in his name includes a signature that mirrors Varol’s in public property records, raising questions about the KSK partner’s claims not to have given. 

Varol did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the check’s signature and whether he may have been used as a straw donor.

Who Brought in the Money?

In 2021 — two years before the federal Turkey probe emerged — Campaign Finance Board regulators flagged 10 of the KSK donors to the Adams campaign, asking for an explanation of who had bundled the contributions.

But the campaign did not disclose any bundlers, also called “intermediaries,” in that instance and many others, as THE CITY has previously reported. Pitta said his team follows “the law to the letter,” but did not answer questions about who paid for the fundraiser or provide evidence of its cost, information that can help determine whether a listing of intermediaries was necessary. 

In a general statement in response to a question about the fundraiser, the Adams campaign attorney added that: “If someone does not meet the definition of an intermediary, it would be inaccurate to identify them as such.”

John Kaehny, Executive Director of Reinvent Albany, a good government group, criticized the Adams campaign’s intermediary disclosures to the Campaign Finance Board, which were less voluminous than some other campaigns.

“The straw donor scams are usually correlated with an intermediary,” said Kaehny. “That’s why the intermediary reporting matters, that’s why it’s in the law and that’s why it’s emphasized.” 


The campaign did not explain why many of the listed contributors at the fundraiser said they did not know about the event.

George Gizanis, an officer with AMK Contracting Corp., another construction firm, whose executive and other employees were also listed as contributing at the fundraiser, said that he and his colleagues donated to the campaign because they thought it “was good for the construction business.”

“But we didn’t attend any event,” Gizanis said. “We made the donation directly to the Eric Adams’ campaign.”

Michael Guerra, a Brooklyn real estate broker, told THE CITY he donated to Adams but that he attended a fundraiser at a home in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which had no affiliation with KSK or Turkish-Americans.

“I’m not happy about it, nope,” he said, when asked about his donation being lumped in with the KSK event in campaign records.

Asked about these discrepancies, Pitta did not provide details on how the campaign organized and processed its donations. 

“The event included contributions from KSK employees, but most guests and contributors were not employees of KSK,” he said.

Previous Straw Donor Allegations

Allegations of straw donations have repeatedly dogged the Adams campaign.

In October, brothers Yahya and Shahid Mushtaq, two owners of a Queens-based construction company, pleaded guilty to fabricating money orders to donate to the Adams campaign using six employees’ names without their knowledge. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that this action was part of a larger conspiracy by the Mushtaqs and other associates, including Dwayne Montgomery, a former deputy police inspector and social acquaintance of Adams. 

As THE CITY previously reported, the Mushtaq brothers are now cooperating with Bragg.

Likewise, in August THE CITY investigated suspicious donations attributed to low-wage employees of a mall and supermarket in Flushing, Queens. One mall worker said she was reimbursed for a $249 contribution her boss asked her to make. Another woman, listed in campaign records as a “deliveryman” at a restaurant in the mall, said she never worked at the restaurant and that her name and signature had been used on a campaign check without her knowledge.

THE CITY’s investigation also revealed a second cluster of $250 donations — the maximum amount that can be matched under the city’s public campaign financing program — that came from a 2019 fundraiser, many of which were made by employees and associates of a retail chain, AC & Appliances Center. 

Nine of the donations came through money orders, a relatively hard-to-trace form of payment, including one from a college graduate who said his signature and that of his father–listed as a “housewife” in campaign records–had been forged. 

One of that fundraiser’s organizers was Winnie Greco, a senior advisor to the mayor who is currently facing a Department of Investigation inquiry after THE CITY reported on allegations that she benefited improperly from her government position.

In November, straw donor allegations involving Turkey and the Adams campaign became a national news story after the FBI raided the home of Adams’ chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs.
After the raid, Adams canceled a long-sought-after meeting with senior White House officials in Washington and rushed back to New York, initially claiming he had “full confidence” in the 25-year-old Suggs. 

Later that month, the FBI seized Adams’ electronic devices, and the Mayor’s Office put one of its staff members, Rana Abbasova, on leave after federal agents also raided her home.

Adams has since said that Suggs is no longer “doing fundraising” for his team, and she has retained her own lawyer.

“We look forward to continued cooperation with the government’s investigation, and her work in support of the mayor’s 2025 campaign,” a spokesperson for Cromwell & Moring, Suggs’ new counsel told Gothamist.