NYC Mayor Eric Adams and Turkey: A history of public officials and luxury travel

Edward Mangano, Nassau's now-imprisoned former county executive, was bribed with trips to Florida, St. Thomas, Niagara Falls, and Turks and Caicos.

Expelled ex-Congressman George Santos is believed to have spent donors' cash to head to the Hamptons, Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos, where he liked to play roulette, according to the House Committee on Ethics.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams fulfilled a childhood dream of world travel, allegedly funded by the Turkish government, flying in the highest class of airline seats and staying in luxury hotel suites, with a chauffeur and fine dining.

When it comes to traveling the globe on someone else's dime, some public officials can't resist. And it can get them into trouble.

"Politicians and elected officials, they're very powerful people, in terms of their power to affect public policy, but they're generally not rich. And they're generally not paid in the way rich people are paid," said Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law School professor who from 2014 to 2020 chaired New York City's municipal ethics watchdog, the Conflicts of Interest Board. He added: "Sometimes people get caught up with the fact they're important people — and important people fly business class, and I think it's very tempting to fall into that trap."

Free or steeply discounted flights in business class aboard Turkish Airlines, along with other perks, are at the heart of the indictment against Adams, who on Sept. 24 became the first sitting mayor in New York City's modern history to be criminally charged.

Flights to and from Turkey, France, China, Ghana, Hungary, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal; suites at the St. Regis, including one with marble floors, 24-hour butler service and views of the Bosporus; and a boat tour were some of the perks that allegedly came at an illegal price: favorable treatment Adams facilitated from the New York City government for Turkish benefactors who gave or arranged for disguised political contributions to Adams' campaigns.

Among the alleged favorable treatment from Adams: helping the Turkish government get its new Manhattan consulate green-lighted to open by the FDNY, even though it was unsafe and would have failed a safety inspection, in time for a planned visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Adams, according to the indictment, would fly Turkish Airlines even when it was inconvenient due to needless layovers. He once joked in a text message, excerpted in the indictment, that misspelled Turkey's biggest city: "You know first stop is always instanbul."

Adams, who turned himself in on Sept. 27, pleaded not guilty to wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy to receive campaign funds from foreign nationals. He vowed to "fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit." He said he wouldn't resign but "reign."

Luring politicians with free travel

Foreign governments have long sought to lure federal officials with free travel, but Adams is alleged to be among the first municipal officials in American history to fall into that trap, according to Casey Michel, director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation in Manhattan.

"These officials are humans just like the rest of us. Who doesn't like a free trip anywhere?" said Michel, author of "Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World," which came out in August.

For his part, Adams on Tuesday said at a news conference that he likes to travel because he never thought he could, growing up as a poor kid in South Jamaica, Queens. When Adams graduated from Bayside High School in the late 1970s, he recalled, he jotted down on the back of his school portrait 100 places he wanted to see.

"I wanted to make sure that I saw the globe. Some people looked at that, and say there's something suspicious. Why does he want to go to these different countries? Because too many children that look like me believe the globe is in 1 square mile of their home, and I want to constantly remind them that the globe belongs to them," Adams said.

Later in the week, he said his travel began long before he was mayor.

"I saved my little pennies when I was a rookie cop," he said.

Adams would bring companions with him, including his girlfriend, according to the indictment.

Others in Adams' circle also are being scrutinized for their trips.

Winnie Greco, an Adams fundraiser and Asian affairs director whose Bronx homes were raided in February by the FBI, traveled to Israel. She has not been charged with a crime.

Adams rebuffed critics in 2022 when he appointed his longtime friend Phil Banks, a former NYPD chief, to be deputy mayor for public safety. Banks played a role in a corruption case in which he accepted all-expense-paid trips courtesy of men who later pleaded guilty to bribery.

(On Monday, Adams announced that Banks had resigned.)

Banks was not criminally charged, but federal prosecutors labeled him an unindicted co-conspirator.

Banks accepted those paid trips, to Israel and the Dominican Republic, as well as steakhouse dinners, $6,000 in basketball tickets and other gifts. Photos entered into evidence show Banks in Israel smoking cigars, smeared in mud at the Dead Sea, posing at the Western Wall and flexing his muscles shirtless in the water. Prosecutors said that Banks gave the men favors including prime parking spots at NYPD headquarters, a police escort to the Times Square ball drop on New Year's Eve, and a gold card: "Family Member of Chief Philip Banks III," which afforded the holder to special treatment by police.

And now Banks is once again under the alleged corruption spotlight.

Last month, in one of at least four corruption investigations into Adams and his circle, Banks' home was among those raided by the FBI. The federal officials are investigating Banks, who took swift action, unsuccessfully, to get a panic button app made by a company represented by one of his brothers, political consultant Terence Banks, to be adopted by the public schools, according to the news outlet The City. One of the Banks brothers, David Banks, is the outgoing schools chancellor.

Christopher Caffarone, who was one of the prosecutors in the Mangano case, said investigators scrutinize benefits like free trips with suspicion, especially when the person bankrolling the trip has business directly before a public official or the government that employs them.

Of prosecutors and investigative agents, Caffarone said, "I think they're looking at different types of payments that go beyond people in a dark alley accepting a bag of cash."

Mangano, who is appealing his conviction, was found guilty in 2019 of taking the bribes and in turn attempting to convince Oyster Bay Town to guarantee loans for improvements to concessions operated by former restaurateur Harendra Singh at a town-owned golf course and beach. Singh testified against Mangano and acknowledged he bribed him. Singh was sentenced to a reduced term in prison due to his cooperation.

Caffarone, who's now in private practice, declined to comment on Mangano, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence. In addition to the trips, Mangano got bribed with hardwood flooring, a massage chair, meals and a watch for his son, among other gifts.

If there is an ostensible public purpose, members of Congress can travel the world for free at public expense and can even bring along a spouse, said Meredith McGehee, an expert on government ethics. Travel can also be entirely covered by a nonprofit and must be approved by the chamber's ethics committee, but it almost always is. Where the high jinks tend to come into play, she said, is when lawmakers pair the official trip with a fundraising add-on, paid for by donors: skiing, the Super Bowl, golf.

Disguising personal travel

Besides accepting free trips from would-be bribers, there are several other ways public officials can put themselves in legal jeopardy for travel-related shenanigans, including misusing publicly funded travel to disguise a personal vacation as necessary for one's job, spending campaign donations on one's own vacation, and accepting privately funded trips paid for by a funder who has business before the government. All three can expose the official to civil, criminal or both kinds of liability.

Santos, who in August pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft, is believed to have misused campaign funds at a skin spa in Jericho, in Las Vegas for his honeymoon, on the Atlantic City jaunts, and beyond.

Sometimes travel is just one part of a suite of goodies bestowed on a politician by influence-seekers.

Earlier this year, a now-former Los Angeles city councilman, José Huizar, was sentenced to 13 years in prison after the FBI caught him accepting $1.8 million of casino chips, stays at luxury hotels, sex workers and a liquor box full of cash from a Chinese developer who wanted city approval to put up a 77-story skyscraper that would have been the tallest tower west of the Mississippi River. The skyscraper was never built.

Sometimes, being caught taking trips from those with business before the government doesn't result in criminal prosecution.

Such was the case with James Sanders Jr., a Queens lawmaker who in 2021 was fined $15,000 by the Conflicts of Interest Board for accepting stays in luxury accommodations at a Poconos resort and dinner cruises for his family, paid for by a nonprofit that he helped get nearly $850,000 during his time on the New York City Council.

The law is stricter when a foreign government is the one extending perks. There is more room for Americans to give politicians and other officials special privileges, such as junkets that include travel and accommodations for spouses, too.

"A lot of the travel is considered kosher, even if it may look a little funny," said Gary Leff, author of the blog View from the Wing. He spoke to Newsday while outside the VIP Room inside one of the most prestigious lounges at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where there is a discreet suite primarily for politicians and other officials. Its design is inspired by the Library of Congress.

Raising the bar for a conviction

Combating political corruption has gotten tougher under recent U.S. Supreme Court precedents intended to rein in prosecutorial overreach and a "boundless interpretation of the federal bribery statute."

In overturning a case against Virginia's ex-Gov. Robert McDonnell, who along with his wife accepted gifts including an expensive island vacation, as well as a Ferrari, a Rolex watch, and a ball gown, the high court unanimously ruled in 2016 that while "tawdry," the largesse doesn't count as bribery just because an official set up a meeting, talked to another official or organized an event, without a quid pro quo. In doing so, the Supreme Court has narrowed anti-corruption laws, raising the evidentiary burden for what prosecutors must show.

To sustain a conviction for bribery in a corruption case, a prosecutor must prove there was a quid pro quo, said Caffarone, the Mangano prosecutor.

Adams' lawyer Alex Spiro has argued that Adams broke no laws, engaged in no quid pro quo, and simply got airline upgrades to otherwise empty seats. It's akin to what members of Congress get, he said.

"Congressmen get upgrades, they get corner suites, they get better tables at restaurants, they get free appetizers, they have their iced tea filled up," Spiro said Monday, soon after filing a motion to dismiss the bribery charge. "Courtesies to politicians are not federal crimes."

In 2018, after a deadlocked jury, a mistrial and judge’s ruling that there was no explicit quid pro quo proved in a key part of the case, now-former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey had charges dropped in a prosecution that accused him of accepting luxury travel from a donor in exchange for preferential treatment and a lucrative contract.

The donor had whisked Menendez off to Paris, where he slept in the executive suite at the highest-tier Hyatt. Menendez also flew on the donor’s private planes and stayed for free at his private villa resort in the Caribbean, where homes sell for as much as $40 million.

In July, in an unrelated case, Menendez was convicted of corruption involving bribes including cash and gold bars.

As for Adams, he said he's visited "a substantial number of those countries" he jotted down on the back of his high school portrait. He made good on his adolescent wanderlust, allegedly with substantial help from the Turkish government.

Asked Tuesday about Turkish Airlines' menu and service, and whether he'd recommend the carrier, Adams smiled and chuckled.

"You know, I love that question," Adams told reporters. "Great service, great service."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.