Turkish Airlines offered to charge Eric Adams $50 for two business-class seats worth $15,000, prosecutors say
Timothy A. Clary
- Eric Adams took perks and donations from the Turkish government for years, prosecutors say.
- A Turkish airline manager once offered $50 tickets — which a staffer said wasn't a "proper price," an indictment said.
- According to the indictment, the tickets were worth $15,000 but Adams paid $1,100.
In June 2021, shortly before he was elected the Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams wanted to take a trip to Turkey — the country that federal prosecutors say covertly sponsored his political career for years.
One of his staffers contacted a Turkish Airlines manager, who had arranged free or heavily discounted flights for Adams before, according to the freshly unsealed indictment against the mayor.
"It is very expensive because it is last minute," the airline manager texted the Adams staffer, according to the indictment. "I am working on a discount"
"I am going to charge $50," the manager followed up later.
The Adams staffer pushed the manager to charge a more realistic-sounding price, prosecutors say.
"No, dear. $50? What?" the staffer said, according to the indictment. "Quote a proper price."
"How much should I charge? :)" the airline manager responded.
The Adams staffer asked for "$1,000 or so," noting that Adams' "every step is being watched right now."
"Let it be somewhat real," the staffer said. "We don't want them to say he is flying for free."
Adams ended up paying $1,100 for roundtrip economy tickets to Istanbul for him and his partner, according to the indictment.
According to the filing, they were "immediately upgraded to business class at no cost." Had the soon-to-be-mayor actually paid for the tickets on the open market, they would have cost more than $15,000, prosecutors say.
The Turkish Airlines manager also offered to set up Adams in the Four Seasons, which the Adams staffer deemed "too expensive."
"Why does he care? He is not going to pay," the manager said.
"His name will not be on anything either," the manager added.
"Super," the Adams staffer responded.
The airline manager also included "a yacht tour, a three-day stay at a luxury beach resort, and a car and driver, as well as a domestic flight between Istanbul and the resort" in the itinerary.
Adams ended up canceling the trip — and got his $1,100 refund — but it was only one of many foreign-paid perks the mayor solicited and received, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors allege Adams took a half-dozen trips around the world on the Turkish government's tab, according to the indictment.
Altogether, they were worth over $100,000, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan said Thursday.
Adams broke "laws that are designed to ensure that officials like him serve the people, not the highest bidder, not a foreign bidder, and certainly not a foreign power," US Attorney Damian Williams said at a press conference. "These are bright red lines and we allege the mayor crossed them again and again for years. That is the only reason we are here today."
A Turkish official told the Adams staffer that a deputy minister of the country's government was personally responsible for making "all the arrangements with one phone call," including the "flight, yacht tour, hotels, rental cars," the indictment says.
In exchange for these alleged bribes, Adams pushed for the priorities of the Turkish government, according to the indictment.
The main goal, prosecutors say, was cutting red tape to approve the Turkish House, a skyscraper near the United Nations Plaza that serves as a headquarters for the government's diplomatic efforts.
The indictment says Adams received numerous other trips and perks that were not included on government disclosure forms.
Among them was a free two-night stay in the Cosmopolitan Suite of the St. Regis Istanbul in 2019.
The hotel itself would have cost $3,000, the indictment says.
On top of that, prosecutors say Adams also solicited and accepted a free car and driver, an island boat tour, a Turkish bath at a seaside hotel, and a meal at a high-end restaurant
The indictment says Adams flew on Turkish Airlines "even when doing so was otherwise inconvenient" because of the perks he got from the foreign government.
During a 2017 trip from New York to France, Adams explained to his partner that he had a layover in Turkey, according to a text message obtained by prosecutors.
"You know first stop is always instanbul," he wrote.