Manhattan prosecutors on Thursday charged the former chief adviser to Mayor Eric Adams and her son with taking $100,000 in bribes from two businessmen in exchange for intervening with city regulators on the businessmen’s behalf.
The adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, and her son received the payments in checks, which her son cashed and used to buy a Porsche and other luxury items, the prosecutors said.
Ms. Lewis-Martin, her son, Glenn Martin II, and the businessmen were charged in a four-count indictment with participating in “a long-running bribery, money-laundering and conspiracy scheme.” The indictment accuses Ms. Lewis-Martin of using her official position to “illegally influence Department of Buildings and other city decisions” in exchange for the cash and other benefits for her and her son.
The businessmen, Mayank Dwivedi and Raizada Vaid, were seeking help with pushing construction projects through the city’s Buildings Department, where they had met with delays, the indictment said.
“From the moment Lewis-Martin became the second most senior person in City Hall, she abused her position and sold her influence to enrich herself and her family,” prosecutors from the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, said in a narrative of the accusations that accompanied the indictment.
A lawyer for Ms. Lewis-Martin, Arthur L. Aidala, said in a statement before she and her co-defendants were arraigned that the prosecutors’ “interpretation of the facts will make no sense to any New York jury.”
“To think that a high-ranking city official would take a bribe in the form of a check deposited into a bank account defies common sense,” he said. “We look forward to the citizens of the City of New York, who Ingrid has served so admirably for decades, clearing her name after a trial.”
Prosecutors also accused Ms. Lewis-Martin and her son of accepting financial support from the two businessmen for a clothing line and a Chick-fil-A franchise in exchange for her using her city position to assist with their projects.
As evidence, prosecutors quoted from telephone conversations involving Ms. Lewis-Martin, her son and others, suggesting they may have wiretapped one or more of the defendants’ phones.
The indictment of Ms. Lewis-Martin represents another blow to Mr. Adams, who faces trial in April on federal corruption charges that made him the first sitting mayor in modern New York City history to be criminally charged. He has denied all the charges.
Mr. Adams, who has said he plans to run for re-election in 2025, has seen a dozen members of his inner circle — two successive police commissioners, his schools chancellor, deputy mayor for public safety and others — ensnared in federal corruption investigations this year.
All have resigned. But none of them has been closer to the mayor than Ms. Lewis-Martin, who over the years has acted as an enforcer — and who in the past has intervened with city agencies on behalf of people with business before the city.
The businessmen charged alongside her were pursing construction projects that included work on a rooftop bar, the Glass Ceiling, and a hotel, both in Manhattan, and they had asked her to help move the projects through the city’s tangled bureaucracy.
After Mr. Dwivedi and Mr. Vaid paid Mr. Martin $100,000 in August 2023, he deposited the money into a joint account he shared with Ms. Lewis-Martin, prosecutors said. Each businessman made a $50,000 payment to Mr. Martin; one had the words “personal loan” written in the check memo, according to prosecutors, who called that an attempt to conceal a bribe and said the defendants had not provided any evidence that loan payments were ever made.
A lawyer for Mr. Vaid, Jonathan S. Sack, called his client “a successful New York City real estate developer and self-made businessman,” adding: “He will be entering a plea of not guilty and intends to fight the charges vigorously.”
Lawyers for Mr. Dwivedi and Mr. Martin were not immediately available for comment.
Prosecutors, in their narrative, included as an exhibit a picture of Mr. Martin in sunglasses, grinning in front of a gleaming black 2023 Porsche Panamera, a big red bow affixed to the hood. He paid $113,000 for the car, “something neither he nor Lewis-Martin could have funded without the bribe money,” the prosecutors wrote.
The indictment was unsealed Thursday and announced at a news conference by Mr. Bragg and the city Department of Investigation commissioner, Jocelyn Strauber.
Ms. Lewis-Martin, Mr. Martin, Mr. Dwivedi and Mr. Vaid surrendered early Thursday and were to be arraigned later in the day.
Prosecutors said Ms. Lewis-Martin used her son as an intermediary in an attempt to cover up her actions. Mr. Martin, 38, a professional D.J. who uses the name “Suave Luciano,” has worked at city events overseen by Mr. Adams’s administration, both when Mr. Adams was mayor and Brooklyn borough president.
The indictment cites a series of fast-paced communications in November and December 2022 relating to Ms. Lewis-Martin’s intervention on permits the businessmen needed for their Manhattan projects, the hotel at 107 Rivington Street and the rooftop bar at 1204 Broadway.
On Nov. 16, Mr. Dwivedi texted Mr. Vaid suggesting that an application for the Rivington Street project had been rejected, adding, “Ingrid Madam is needed,” the indictment said.
Following messages Mr. Vaid exchanged with Ms. Lewis-Martin including via the encrypted messaging app Signal, she contacted officials at the city Buildings Department seeking to move the men’s applications forward.
On Dec. 8, 2022, Ms. Lewis-Martin met with Mr. Vaid, who goes by the nickname “Pinky,” and texted the acting buildings commissioner during the meeting to expedite approval of the Glass Ceiling project, prosecutors said.
After the meeting, the indictment says, Ms. Lewis-Martin texted her son: “Pinky has you completely covered. You[r] fashion line is 100 percent. Call him later.” It was not clear whether any fashion line ever materialized.
Later that day, Mr. Vaid again sent Ms. Lewis-Martin his request to expedite the rooftop bar application, which she forwarded to the acting commissioner; it was approved the same day, indictment says.
Aside from accusing her of using her son as an intermediary, prosecutors laid out others ways they said Ms. Lewis-Martin tried to keep her actions secret.
When Mr. Vaid asked her help in a WhatsApp message to expedite a visa application for a relative, she told him to send “an official email” to her City Hall account, according to communications cited by prosecutors. She then contacted the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York on his behalf, prosecutors said.
During the same period she was using Signal to field requests from Mr. Vaid and forward them to city buildings officials, Ms. Lewis-Martin set her Signal messages to disappear after an hour, prosecutors said.
In January 2023, after Mr. Vaid texted her saying, “I need this favor” because the Rivington Street project was “stuck,” she wrote back: “Please only use Signal for asks,” they said. Ms. Lewis-Martin is accused of instructing him to use coded language in text to alert her he had messaged her there. “Next time just text me ‘trying to reach you[’] and I will Look for it,” she wrote, according to prosecutors’ narrative.
Later that year, according to prosecutors, Mr. Martin became an intermediary for the businessmen to make additional requests. And Mr. Martin sought Mr. Vaid’s backing in opening the Chick-fil-A franchise.
In June of this year, Ms. Lewis-Martin spoke on the phone to a real-estate agent who was helping Mr. Martin and Mr. Vaid find space for the restaurant, according to prosecutors, who quoted from the call in court papers. The agent said she was waiting for Mr. Martin to return some paperwork.
“As soon as it gets back to us, we’re going to get him a space and then we’ll move forward,” the agent said, according to a court filing.
“I’m not playing, your sister has to be rich!” Ms. Lewis Martin responded, referring to herself. “I’m going to retire.”
The post Ex-Top Aide to Mayor Adams and Her Son Are Charged in Corruption Case appeared first on New York Times.
