You know, there’s been so much corruption in the Eric Adams administration, I’ve kind of lost track myself.
But being as this is possibly the most corrupt administration in the history of New York City, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: do I feel like doing two flaming hyenas in one day?
Well, do I, punk?
Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the former top aide to Mayor Adams, was officially indicted today, along with her son and two “businessmen”.
Allegedly, they were getting paid by check, “which her son cashed and used to buy a Porsche and other luxury items”.
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.
…
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Noted:
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.
COMSEC! Hurrah! Obviously not a perfect effort, but it has been so rare to see someone even trying to secure their communications, attention must be paid.
Oh. Her lawyer vigorously denies the charges:
“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.”
Ms. Lewis-Martin resigned over the weekend, apparently in anticipation of the indictment.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 19th, 2024 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Law, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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