New York City Mayor Eric Adams has found himself embroiled in controversy over legal challenges stemming from accusations of bribery, wire fraud, and campaign finance-related charges. Allegedly, Adams accepted illegal campaign donations from the Turkish government, which have led to significant political and financial scrutiny. The federal charges have sparked allegations of quid pro quo, despite attempts by the Department of Justice to have them dismissed. Adding to these controversies, Adams set up a trust under new state law to manage his legal expenses, though it now faces financial challenges, reportedly being $900,000 in deficit.

Before becoming mayor, Eric Adams had a diverse career, starting in law enforcement with the NYPD, where he advocated for police reform. His progression in the police force culminated with his role as a captain before transitioning to politics and becoming the Borough President of Brooklyn. Despite the pay cut typically associated with a political career, Adams's political path led him to the role of New York City's mayor, where he has implemented policies focusing on safety, infrastructure, and economic recovery, albeit amid significant challenges like the city's homelessness and immigration issues.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. bribery [ˈbraɪbəri] - (n.) - The act of giving or receiving something of value in exchange for some kind of influence or action. - Synonyms: (corruption, graft, subornation)

So in the fall of 2024, the mayor was slapped with bribery, wire fraud, and campaign finance related charges over allegedly accepting illegal campaign donations from the Turkish government.

2. embattled [ɪmˈbætəld] - (adj.) - Involved in or affected by conflict or controversy. - Synonyms: (besieged, beleaguered, troubled)

Controversy certainly has been swirling around New York City Mayor Eric Adams over the past couple of months.

3. quid pro quo [kwɪd proʊ kwoʊ] - (phrase) - A favor or advantage granted in return for something. - Synonyms: (trade-off, exchange, barter)

So this sparked quid pro quo allegations and then in turn inspired a flurry of resignations.

4. allegations [ˌæləˈɡeɪʃənz] - (n.) - Claims or assertions that someone has done something illegal or wrong, typically without proof. - Synonyms: (accusations, charges, claims)

So this sparked quid pro quo allegations and then in turn inspired a flurry of resignations

5. vacated [ˈveɪkeɪtɪd] - (v.) - To cancel or annul a judgment or legal decision. - Synonyms: (nullified, rescinded, abolished)

A federal judge just last month vacated Adams his trial date, but did not drop the charges despite the DOJ's request.

6. indicted [ɪnˈdaɪtɪd] - (v.) - Formally charged with a crime. - Synonyms: (charged, accused, arraigned)

Yeah, so Adams has been under investigation since 2023. He was indicted in 2024 on charges, essentially corruption charges.

7. tenure [ˈtenjər] - (n.) - The period during which someone holds a job, position, or public office. - Synonyms: (term, incumbency, duration)

But I would also say there's been some, it's been a bumpy tenure.

8. resign [rɪˈzaɪn] - (v.) - To voluntarily leave a job or office. - Synonyms: (step down, quit, retire)

But he did eventually resign in 2006 after criticizing the Bloomberg administration over its handling of a couple law enforcement matters.

9. reform [rɪˈfɔrm] - (v.) - To make changes in something in order to improve it. - Synonyms: (improve, amend, overhaul)

He also started to get more involved in police reform.

10. prominent [ˈprɑːmɪnənt] - (adj.) - Important; famous or widely recognized. - Synonyms: (notable, eminent, distinguished)

During COVID he was one of the more prominent citywide faces.

Here's How Much Mayor Eric Adams Is Worth

Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now is my Forbes colleague, Money in Politics reporter Kyle Kahn Mullens. Kyle, thanks so much for joining me. Always great to be here, Brittany. Thanks for having me.

Controversy certainly has been swirling around New York City Mayor Eric Adams over the past couple of months. It's really embroiled the entire city. And I've reported on the political implications here. But you have some interesting reporting on the money angle, which I want to get into. So. But let's talk about what has happened with Mayor Eric Adams the past couple of months.

So in the fall of 2024, the mayor was slapped with bribery, wire fraud, and campaign finance related charges over allegedly accepting illegal campaign donations from the Turkish government. A federal judge just last month vacated Adams his trial date, but did not drop the charges despite the DOJ's request. So this sparked quid pro quo allegations and then in turn inspired a flurry of resignations.

And you have some insight on the mayor's net worth. But before we get into the numbers, I do want to start at the very beginning. We know before he was mayor, Eric Adams had a law enforcement background. So to start off the conversation, can you talk about what inspired him to serve? You know, Eric Adams is full of stories and he has a lot of stories about his youth that he likes to share on the campaign trail. I think he thinks that it helps him relate to people in New York that grew up in a situation like him.

He was raised by a single mom in Brooklyn. He has lots of stories that include things like getting into gang fights. When he was a teenager, he was hit in the head with a nail studded baseball bat at one point. At another point, he worked as one of the squeegee boys, the guys who run up to your car and clean it and then kind of hold you hostage until you, until you pay them off to let you leave.

And then most importantly for his future career, he talks about why he was inspired to be a cop. He got into some legal trouble. He tried to steal some money from someone that he knew along with a friend. He was caught, the cops took him to the station and according to his telling, started beating him just mercilessly. And the beating only stopped when a black cop intervened and told the cop the two cops were beating him, who were white, to knock it off. And he was impressed by that. And he said later that he was like that black cop had the juice and he wanted some of that juice for himself. And so he was inspired to go into law enforcement.

After he went to college for criminal justice, he went to the police academy and that kicked off a 22 year career at the NYPD. I think according to Adams, if you asked him, something central to his identity is his law enforcement career. So talk to us about his 22 year career there and what he was earning in each of his roles.

So he started at the Transit Police, which was actually a separate division of the New York Police Department. It wasn't actually part of the New York Police Department at all, but it was merged with the MIPD in 1995 under Mayor Giuliani. Around that same time, he also started to get more involved in police reform. That is kind of why he went into it. He was like, I recognize his whole philosophy is the police are there to keep people safe, but they also need to be reformed because they, there are a lot of problems with the police.

He started a group called 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement who Care. It's a group of black law enforcement officers who advocate for that police reform, like I said. And he rising up the ranks. He eventually became a captain. We estimate that he was making six figures at that point. But he did eventually resign in 2006 after criticizing the Bloomberg administration over its handling of a couple law enforcement matters. And at that point when he resigned, he was deemed by the New York Post, New York's most outspoken cop. So that can kind of give you a sense of how much he was making and that's the total breadth of his career there.

And then he transitioned into politics. So walk us through, through there, his career there, what he was making. And as we know, and as you and I have talked about at length, when people jump into politics, usually their salary goes down. I think that was the trend with Mayor Eric Adams. But explain.

You're exactly right. He initially ran for and won a New York State Senate seat. He was representing Brooklyn in the New York State Senate and he was making about $80,000 a year, which was almost certainly less than he was making as a captain at the nypd. He was at the State Senate for seven years. I'm doing my math, right. And then he ran for and again won the Brooklyn Borough President position. And that in that position he was making $160,000.

So finally he's making more than he probably was as a cop. And that set him up really well for citywide prominence. During COVID he was one of the more prominent citywide faces. He, you know, there were, there were profiles of him moving into his office and sleeping in his office. In, in Brooklyn at the time.

And so that all set him up for a Mayor run in 2021. He ran against a pretty wide field, but including former presidential candidate Andrew Yang was also running in that, in that race. But he did ultimately win. He won the Democratic primary and they cruised to victory in the general election. And as mayor, that got him another salary bump, up to $260,000 a year.

Now, as you said, he's making a little bit more money as mayor of New York. He has been mayor since 2022. So walk us through the past three years. What are some of the highlights of his tenure? Yeah, some of the things he would highlight in his bid for reelection. He put more cops on the streets. He's on containerization, trying to get all the trash bags off the streets and get those into, you know, actual dumpsters and trash cans. Something that every other city in the country seems to have discovered 100 years ago.

And he's really emphasized things like housing construction. He has a bigot issue called City of Yes, that was passed, I want to say, late last year. That's rezoning big chunks of New York to make it easier to build housing there. And he's focused on economic recovery from the COVID pandemic. But I would also say there's been some, it's been a bumpy tenure. You've seen homelessness crisis spurred in part by a migrant crisis and immigration related migration. The economic recovery from the pandemic has been somewhat uneven. And of course you have these corruption allegations that were he was indicted for last year. And so those are the kinds of things that have shaped his tenure.

So he's had a lengthy career as a police officer, local politics. Now New York City mayor. How much is the mayor worth? Forbes is estimating that New York Mayor Eric Adams is worth about $2.5 million, maybe a little more. So let's break that down a little further first. When you're looking at his personal assets, how much of his fortune is tied up in that? So he has about three and a half million dollars at least of personal assets. And the vast majority of that is three property, three real estate holdings. You've got two, two 50% shares in. There's one apartment in Brooklyn and then there's one in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

And then the biggest real estate holding by far is a brownstone in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. That's worth about $2 million, we estimate. And then the rest of his net worth is two pensions, one from his time in the NYPD and One from his time as Brooklyn Borough president and then mayor. So he has a city pension for that.

Does he have any liquid assets? Not that we could tell. So he has. He does have a small holding of Bitcoin that he reports on his disclosure. It's a couple. Couple tens of thousands of dollars. We think the problem with the disclosures is they don't actually have to report accounts if they are strictly cash. And so theoretically, he could have a ton of money in just pure cash, not bearing any sort of investment or anything like that in a checking account or a savings account or something like that. And we wouldn't know because it wouldn't be on his disclosure.

There'll be no way of him knowing. So that's why we say that his net worth is at least 2.5 million, his assets are at least 3.5 million, is because there is this kind of mystery, you know, right. Right there, that he might be a little bit more liquid than we're taking him to be. But as far as we could tell, he's not that liquid.

And he's faced some legal challenges over the past couple of months. If you're a New Yorker, you are very privy to this. But it has made national headlines. So talk to us about those legal hurdles. And more importantly for the. This conversation, how much have they cost him? Yeah, so Adams has been under investigation since 2023. He was indicted in 2024 on charges, essentially corruption charges. So you have charges of bribery, charge of campaign finance violation, charges of wire fraud.

And they're all connected to, essentially, campaign contributions and travel perks that he appears to have gotten, allegedly, from representatives of the Turkish government. And in return, he was helping them out with various services that they needed from the city. And so that. Those are the. Those are the charges. He's, of course, denied them categorically, said that he didn't do anything wrong, has compared this to a weaponized justice system, has said that the Biden administration was going after him because he spoke out against them on immigration issues, and he's actually allied himself with President Trump in that regard.

And so it seems like that worked out for him well, because the Trump Justice Department, as soon as Trump came into office, moved to dismiss all the charges against Adams. That sparked, like you said earlier, allegations of a quid pro quo. There were even some comments that were made on a Fox morning show with him and the border czar with the border czar system along the lines of, you know, if you don't hold up our deal, I'm going to come after you. And then they all chuckled about it. It was like, is that admitting to a quid pro quo? We're not so sure. But that's the allegation, at least.

And then you're reporting that the mayor set up a trust to pay off these legal challenges. Talk to us about that. He did. It's actually the first one of these trusts set up under New York State law in the city's history. The law was only passed in 2019, so lucky him that he's able to set this up. And that trust is able to accept donations of up to $5,000 from. And he's not allowed to accept donations from city employees or family members of city employees. There's a couple other restrictions, but generally that's what he's able to do.

And so that trust has spent over two and a half million dollars so far, that's as of the end of last year on all of his various legal expenses. And it's only taken in about 1.6 million. Not sure where it's getting the rest of the money, but it basically means that that Trust is about $900,000 at least in the hole right now. It just doesn't have the assets to cover the expenses that it's putting out, which means that Adams is liable for those exposure expenses. And so we're actually deducting that $900,000 from his network, which is why we're getting to that two and a half million that I mentioned before.

The New York City mayoral race is shaping up to be a potentially crowded race. And someone who entered just this past weekend is former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who himself was in hot water when he was in office for a few different allegations and a few sexual assault allegations, as well as he was really criticized over the way he handled nursing homes during COVID And in an Emerson College poll, this was taken before the governor officially announced Cuomo and undecided were both trouncing Mayor Eric Adams.

So let's say that the mayor does not come out victorious in the mayoral race. Financially, will he be okay? Oh, he'll be just fine, Brittany. He's got two pensions that are going to be making him play plenty of money keeping him very cash flow positive over the years. So assuming he's able to pay off those legal debts that I mentioned, he's going to be doing just fine. Those pensions are probably between his city pension and his NYPD pension. Probably going to pay out something like nine to $10,000 a month every month until he dies. That's a pretty good deal. I certainly wish I had a pension like that. Public servants do tend to get very generous pensions. And so I, I think he's going to be okay.

He's also got that $2 million Brooklyn brownstone. It has no debt on it right now, paid off the debt last year. And so if he needed to, he could borrow against that as well. Well, Kyle, I always appreciate your reporting and I always appreciate your angle because it always provides a unique aspect to the story that I'm covering as well. Kyle Khan Mullins, thank you so much for joining me. Always great to be here. Whitney, thanks again.

POLITICS, ECONOMICS, LEADERSHIP, NEW YORK CITY POLITICS, CONTROVERSY, CORRUPTION, FORBES