Diana Boutross, a New York actual property dealer, was in a position to sideline a competitor from a profitable metropolis authorities contract and safe the deal for herself as a “direct result” of her shut relationship with Ingrid Lewis-Martin and Jesse Hamilton, two longtime aides to Mayor Adams, in keeping with an up to date lawsuit.
The revised lawsuit comes as Boutross, Hamilton and Lewis-Martin, who resigned because the mayor’s chief adviser in December, all stay underneath scrutiny from the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace.
All three obtained their telephones seized by DA investigators in September after getting back from a visit to Japan, and Lewis-Martin was days after her resignation indicted on bribery and cash laundering costs stemming from an alleged actual property scheme that seems unconnected to any dealings with Boutross and Hamilton.
DA prosecutors mentioned in court docket final week they’re pursuing different “ongoing investigations” pertaining to Lewis-Martin, and that different “targets” of these probes are linked to her.
The lawsuit in query was first filed final month by Boutross’ competitor, JRT Realty, in opposition to her agency, Cushman & Wakefield.
The swimsuit claimed Hamilton, a prime official on the metropolis Division of Citywide Administrative Companies, pressured Cushman & Wakefield to put in Boutross as its important govt on a contract with Adams’ administration underneath which she’d dealer business property offers between non-public landlords and metropolis companies in alternate for hefty commissions.
JRT, a subcontractor on the DCAS deal entitled to share in these commissions, charged within the unique swimsuit Cushman & Wakefield acquiesced to Hamilton’s demand and put Boutross within the publish in late 2023, at which level she took allegedly illicit steps to dam JRT from offers.
However an amended criticism submitted in Manhattan Supreme Court docket late Wednesday alleges Boutross couldn’t pull off these strikes alone, however relied on her connections to Lewis-Martin and Hamilton to take action.
Mayor Adams (Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information)
“[Boutross and her co-defendants] were able to do so only as a direct result of Boutross’s personal relationships with Hamilton and Lewis-Martin,” JRT wrote within the up to date criticism, which now names Boutross in addition to two colleagues as defendants, along with Cushman & Wakefield itself, accusing them of defamation, contract breaches, tortious enterprise intereference and different civil counts.
Particularly, JRT claims Boutross had assist from Lewis-Martin and Hamilton in securing “modifications” to town’s Minority and Ladies-Owned Enterprise Enterprises guidelines that allowed Boutross to extra simply block JRT from sharing in commissions. The agency, which is women-owned, alleges within the swimsuit that metropolis administrative and contract legal guidelines had been violated within the means of these modifications being made.
Lewis-Martin, who has pleaded not responsible in her felony case, isn’t named as a defendant in JRT’s swimsuit, and neither is Hamilton.
Attorneys and reps for Lewis-Martin, Hamilton and Boutross didn’t instantly return requests for remark Thursday. In response to JRT’s unique swimsuit, attorneys for Cushman & Wakefield denied wrongdoing and filed a movement asking a choose to dismiss the accusations.
Additionally within the up to date swimsuit, JRT alleged Boutross hinted she had associates in excessive locations when she spoke with JRT executives in mid-2023, earlier than she was chosen to take over the DCAS contract.
After the JRT executives defined to her the complexities of pulling off a DCAS brokering deal, Boutross, who allegedly had no prior authorities leasing expertise, would reply, “Don’t worry. I have a rabbi,” in keeping with the swimsuit. The phrase is usually used to indicate an individual with high-up connections that may make a troublesome state of affairs simple.
Across the identical time of these talks, Hamilton had lunch with Boutross, her boss at Cushman & Wakefield and others, JRT alleges. In that lunch, Hamilton made clear to Boutross’ boss that she needs to be tapped to supervise the contract with DCAS, in keeping with court docket papers.
“She is my broker,” Hamilton mentioned within the assembly, pointing at Boutross, JRT alleges.
A spokeswoman for DCAS didn’t instantly return a request for touch upon the amended JRT swimsuit.
The lawsuit’s taking part in out as Lewis-Martin’s bribery case stays pending, together with her lawyer and prosecutors assembly for a short court docket listening to Thursday to debate trial preparations. She has been indicted alongside her son, who allegedly obtained many of the bribes his mom accepted from two actual property builders in alternate for assist with constructing permits.
In contrast to Adams — whose federal corruption case is within the means of being a minimum of briefly dismissed by President Trump’s administration — Lewis-Martin was indicted by native prosecutors who’ve proven no signal of desirous to drop her case.
