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NYTimes
New York Times
26 Sep 2024
William K. Rashbaum


NextImg:Cheap Flights and Deleted Texts: 10 Takeaways From the Adams Indictment

The indictment of Mayor Eric Adams unsealed on Thursday provides a banquet of strange, amusing and troubling vignettes unearthed during the investigation by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the F.B.I. Here are 10 of them:

1. Suspiciously cheap tickets — and an upgrade

On the June day in 2021 when Mr. Adams won the Democratic primary for mayor and all but assured his ascension to City Hall, his thoughts strayed.

An Adams aide messaged the general manager of Turkish Airlines in New York, Cenk Öcal, to book flights for Mr. Adams to Istanbul. The staff member fits the description of Rana Abbasova, then Mr. Adams’s liaison to Turkey.

Mr. Öcal said he would charge the mayor $50, a price so low as to appear preposterous. And appearances mattered.

“No, dear. $50? What? Quote a proper price,” Ms. Abbasova responded. “His every step is being watched right now. $1,000 or so. Let it be somewhat real. We don’t want them to say he is flying for free. At the moment, the media’s attention is on Eric.”

Mr. Adams ended up paying about $2,200 for tickets for himself and his romantic partner, tickets that were promptly upgraded to business class and would have otherwise cost more than $15,000.

When Ms. Abbasova asked Mr. Öcal where he would recommend that Mr. Adams stay in Istanbul, the manager suggested the Four Seasons.


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