Five people allegedly donated upwards of $10,000 to New York CityMayorEric Adams’ 2025 re-election effort and were later reimbursed by city executives in the hotel and construction industry, according to a new investigation. Three of the donors told The City, Documented, and the Guardian US that they were asked to front contributions from the businesspeople as part of an illegal “straw donation” scheme, which would allow the executives to evade campaign contribution limits. Three of the five straw donations were associated with the owner of a Queens hotel that, while serving as a city shelter for former prisoners, also housed a member of the Adams administration, Winnie Greco, for months. Representatives for the accused donors denied the claims and said they were “not entirely accurate.” A lawyer for Adams’ re-election campaign flatly rejected the assertions, saying, “no one on the campaign has ever or would ever participate in or condone such behavior.” Adams has already come under scrutiny for alleged straw donor tactics. In November, his chief fundraiser left the re-election campaign after the FBI raided her home for evidence of a suspected shadow donation scheme involving the Turkish government.
