Prosecutors in New York indicted a half dozen people who allegedly used a straw donor scheme to steer tens of thousands of dollars in public matching funds to New York City Mayor Eric Adams' successful 2021 campaign.
“We allege a deliberate scheme to game the system in a blatant attempt to gain power," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement on Friday after the court filing was unsealed.
The indictment does not accuse Adams of wrongdoing, but says the six accused were trying to curry favor with his campaign with the goal of landing city business.
“FYI ! This is the one I want , Safety , Drywall , and Security one project but we all can eat,” Shamsuddin Riza, one of the defendants, wrote in an email to another, Dwayne Montgomery, in July 2021, regarding a construction project in Brooklyn, the indictment said.
That email exchange took place about 12 days after Montgomery allegedly told Riza in a phone conversation that “[the Candidate] said he doesn’t want to do anything if he doesn’t get 25 Gs.”
The indictment does not state what the basis of Montgomery’s claim was.
A spokesperson for Adams’ 2021 campaign, Evan Thies, said: “There is no indication that the campaign or the mayor is involved in this case or under investigation. The campaign always held itself to the highest standards and we would never tolerate these actions.”
Bragg said the "indictment charges the defendants with subverting campaign finance laws by improperly structuring campaign contributions.”
Prosecutors said the group used almost two dozen straw donors — people they could funnel donations through and sidestep donation limits.
The size of the individual donations was generally about $250, but the city had an eight-to-one matching program for the election — meaning each of those donations could be matched with $2,000 in public funds from the New York City Campaign Finance Board.
The filing indicates Montgomery, a former inspector in the New York Police Department, was the mastermind of the scheme. He is currently listed as the director of integrity for the Teamsters Local 237, which represents municipal workers, according to the Associated Press.
The indictment alleges that he organized two fundraisers for Adams, a fellow NYPD veteran, and withdrew almost $40,000 from his bank account to pay for the straw donations.
Thies said “Montgomery was a colleague of the mayor in the police department whom he knew socially and worked on criminal justice issues with. Dozens of former police officers and criminal justice advocates hosted events for the mayor over the course of the campaign.”
The six defendants are charged with conspiracy, attempted grand larceny and offering a false instrument. Montgomery, Riza and two other co-defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges on Friday, and the remaining two defendants are expected to be arraigned at later date, the DA's office said.
Riza's attorney, Muhammad Ikhlas, declined comment but confirmed his client pleaded not guilty and had been released on his own recognizance. A lawyer for Montgomery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thies said Adams' campaign "thanks the District Attorney’s office for their hard work on behalf of taxpayers,” and "will of course work with the DA’s office, the Campaign Finance Board, and any relevant authorities.”
