A former top adviser to New York City mayor Eric Adams has been indicted for bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy as part of a scheme that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg describes as a “quid pro quo” agreement.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin, 63, was charged on Thursday in an indictment that was highly anticipated following her resignation as the mayor’s chief adviser on Sunday. Behind Adams, she is the city’s most high-profile official to face corruption charges. Her son, a hotel owner, and a real estate investor were implicated in the corruption.
“We allege that Ingrid Lewis-Martin engaged in a long-running bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy scheme by using her position and authority as the Chief Advisor to the Mayor of the City of New York to illegally influence Department of Buildings and other city decisions in exchange for more than $100,000 in cash and benefits for herself and her son, Glenn Martin II,” Bragg said.
Lewis-Martin allegedly helped a rooftop bar and a hotel with obtaining their pending permits that were taking too long to be approved, per court documents. Hotel owner Mayank Dwivedi and real estate investor Raizada Vaid then paid Lewis-Martin’s son Glenn Martin II, who moonlights as a DJ, two $50,000 checks.
The son deposited the $100,000 in a joint bank account with his mother, transferring $50,000 to his DJ business before issuing a $113,000 cashier’s check to buy a 2023 Porsche. The mother-son duo had plans to pursue business ventures, including a clothing line and Chick-fil-A franchise.
Lewis-Martin then used Signal, a third-party encrypted messaging app, to communicate with her son and the two others in an attempt to hide their tracks, prosecutors allege.
In September, federal agents raided Lewis-Martin’s home and seized her phones as part of their investigation into her alleged corruption. The former official surrendered to authorities Thursday morning. The former Adams official, along with the three other defendants, appeared in a Manhattan courtroom later Thursday to hear the charges made against them.
“Today’s indictment alleges and portrays a clear picture: ‘You do this for me and I will do that for you.’ It was not what is in the best interest of the city of New York and those who live here,” Bragg told reporters.
Thursday’s indictment comes three months after Adams himself was indicted by a federal grand jury for accepting bribes and illegal contributions from foreign sources to benefit his political career. The mayor allegedly accepted free airline flights and stayed in luxurious hotels on behalf of Turkish business and government officials who sought to influence him.
Adams was also accused of helping the Turkish government bypass New York City’s fire safety inspection to open Turkey’s new consulate building. Adams maintains he did nothing wrong and claims he is a victim of political persecution.
Earlier this week, president-elect Donald Trump revealed he would consider pardoning Adams from the federal corruption charges while acknowledging he didn’t know the full scope of the case. Trump said Adams’s opposition to letting illegal immigrants enter New York City en masse may have been the politically motivated reason for why he was indicted.
Prior to the election, the former president predicted Adams would be indicted for criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis.
“I said it not as a prediction, a little bit lightheartedly, but I said it. I said he’s going to be indicted, and a few months later he got indicted. So, I would certainly look at” pardoning Adams, Trump said on Monday.
Bragg revealed Adams was not involved in Lewis-Martin’s scheme.
“The mayor is not a target of our investigation, and we do not have evidence of criminal conduct by the mayor,” the Democratic district attorney said.
Lewis-Martin is the latest official to leave the Adams administration in recent months. New York Police Department commissioner Edward Caban, Adams’s chief counsel Lisa Zornberg, New York City School chancellor David Banks, and Adams’s top deputy mayor Sheena Wright all resigned around the time that federal authorities were investigating City Hall in several probes.