A close adviser to Mayor Eric Adams was suspended from his re-election campaign on Wednesday after giving a journalist cash tucked inside a potato chip bag.
The adviser, Winnie Greco, who was the mayor’s former director of Asian affairs at City Hall and one of his best fund-raisers, had returned to the campaign trail as a volunteer during Mr. Adams’s run for a second term. She had been at the center of controversy after the F.B.I. raided her homes last year as part of a federal investigation into possible Chinese government interference in the 2021 mayor’s race.
On Wednesday, Ms. Greco attended an event with Mr. Adams in Harlem and gave more than $100 in a red envelope stashed inside the snack bag to a reporter for The City, according to an article in the online news outlet. The City promptly reported the incident to the city’s Department of Investigation, and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn contacted the newspaper’s lawyers, according to the newspaper’s account.
“We are shocked by these reports,” Mr. Adams’s campaign spokesman, Todd Shapiro, said. “Winnie Greco holds no position in this campaign and has been suspended from all volunteer campaign related activities.”
He said Mr. Adams has “always demanded the highest ethical and legal standards.”
Ms. Greco’s lawyer, Steven Brill, said that it is common in Chinese culture to give cash to reporters “in a gesture of friendship and gratitude.”
“I grant you this looks odd,” Mr. Brill said. “But I assure you that Winnie’s intent was purely innocent.”
He said Ms. Greco’s attempt to give money to the reporter might have been “misconstrued” and that she is “apologetic and embarrassed.”
John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, declined to comment.
Diane Struzzi, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Investigation, said the agency had been told of the episode by The City and declined further comment.
Ms. Greco’s actions could draw attention to the scandals marring Mr. Adams’s mayoralty and his re-election campaign. Several associates and supporters of Mr. Adams are expected to face corruption charges in coming days, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. The defendants are expected to include the mayor’s closest political ally and former chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who has called Ms. Greco “my sister.”
F.B.I. agents searched Ms. Greco’s homes in the Bronx in February 2024. Even as concerns grew over her ties to China, the mayor kept her close.
Ms. Greco resigned from his administration in October 2024, one of several departures after Mr. Adams had been indicted on federal corruption charges that were later dismissed by the Trump administration. This year, she reappeared at the mayor’s campaign events.
The reporter who was given the cash, Katie Honan, told The New York Times that Ms. Greco had texted her at the Harlem rally and asked to meet across the street next to a TD Bank.
Ms. Honan, who said she had thought she was going to get information from Ms. Greco about the expected indictments, said they walked together into a Whole Foods store. There, Ms. Greco soon handed Honan the bag of chips, which the reporter said she did not want to accept. She tried unsuccessfully to return it.
After the two parted, Ms. Honan opened the bag at her subway stop and discovered a red envelope stuffed with cash.
“I initially hoped it was a note, a tip, and then I looked and I go, ‘Oh my God, it’s money,’” said Ms. Honan, who instantly called Ms. Greco to try to return the at least one $100 bill and several $20 bills that she found inside the envelope. Ms. Greco told her that she had left the area, and laughed about it.
After the incident, Honan returned to The City’s office and handed the envelope to her editors. The City then contacted the Department of Investigation. Federal prosecutors retrieved the chip bag and cash, The City reported.
The publication said in its story that it had asked Ms. Greco about her motivations for giving the money to Ms. Honan and that Ms. Greco replied that it was “cultural” and repeatedly apologized: “Can we forget about this?” she said. “Please don’t do in the news nothing about me.”
Ms. Greco began volunteering for Mr. Adams after he was elected Brooklyn borough president in 2013 and has been one of his closest confidantes. She was one of a handful of friends with him in Times Square in 2022, the night he was sworn in.
And when Mr. Adams launched his re-election campaign on the steps of City Hall in June, Ms. Greco was there, along with Brianna Suggs, the mayor’s top fund-raiser, whose home was also searched by the F.B.I.
When Mr. Adams was asked in a television interview about his continued association with them, he said that Ms. Suggs had not been charged with a crime and that people deserved due process.
“If, in their own time, they want to volunteer to help the campaign in whatever way they know how to help, the worst thing we do is say they shouldn’t,” he said.
Santul Nerkar contributed reporting.