Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Mayor Adams’ longtime confidante, took at the very least $75,000 in bribes in trade for doling out varied favors for political allies, resembling steering migrant shelter contracts to most well-liked distributors, derailing a motorcycle lane mission in Brooklyn and fast-tracking constructing permits for a Queens karaoke bar, in keeping with 4 bombshell indictments unsealed Thursday.
The brand new indictments — which come on high of a separate set of December 2024 prison costs alleging Lewis-Martin took one other $100,000 in bribes — identify six different individuals and two company entities as co-defendants.
They embrace her grownup son, Glenn Martin II, and Jesse Hamilton, one other Adams buddy who has served in a senior function on the Division of Citywide Administrative Providers, in addition to Gina and Tony Argento, two Adams donors and politically influential siblings who run the Broadway Levels TV manufacturing firm.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin’s son, Glenn D. Martin II, is escorted by Manhattan DA detectives in handcuffs right into a Manhattan Supreme Courtroom courtroom on new corruption costs Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information)
After being led right into a Manhattan courtroom in handcuffs Thursday afternoon, Lewis-Martin, who was Adams’ chief adviser at Metropolis Corridor, and her co-defendants all pleaded not responsible to a spread of bribery and conspiracy costs.
“If you were willing to pay, Ms. Martin was open for business,” assistant Manhattan district lawyer Man Tardanico mentioned in detailing the costs, as Lewis-Martin, carrying a gold swimsuit, shook her head.
Hamilton, who was the one present Adams administration official swept up within the new indictments introduced by Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s workplace, resigned from his DCAS put up shortly after his not responsible plea.
“Jesse made the wise decision to retire and resign so that he can give full attention to fighting these false allegations,” Hamilton’s lawyer, Mark Pollard, mentioned.
Taken collectively, the indictments paint an image of how Lewis-Martin — and, to a sure diploma, Hamilton — allegedly used their sway over authorities operations to strain metropolis companies, together with the FDNY and Departments of Buildings and Transportation, to do the bidding of their benefactors, typically on the expense of others with enterprise earlier than town.
Former Sen. Jesse Hamilton (middle) and Yechiel Landau (left) are pictured throughout their arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom on Aug. 21, 2025. (Curtis Means for DailyMail / Pool)
The explosive costs additionally deliver again into the highlight considerations about corruption inside Adams’ administration simply as he faces an uphill battle in November’s mayoral election.
Lewis-Martin’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, mentioned earlier than the courtroom look that she maintains her innocence.
“Her only so-called ‘offense’ was fulfilling her duty — helping fellow citizens navigate the city’s outdated and often overwhelming bureaucracy,” Aidala mentioned. “At no point did she receive a single dollar or any personal benefit for her assistance.”
Tian Ji Li is escorted by Manhattan DA detectives in handcuffs to a courtroom in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information)
The most important bribe Lewis-Martin is accused of soliciting was a $50,000 payoff from Tian Ji Li, the proprietor of a Queens mall that has been the positioning of Adams marketing campaign fundraisers that’ve raised straw donor considerations.
Tian wired the bribe in August 2023 to a checking account managed by Martin II, knowledgeable DJ generally known as “Suave Luciano,” who served as an “intermediary” between his mother and the mall proprietor, prosecutors cost.
After that, Lewis-Martin allegedly went to work to press the FDNY to expedite hearth security permits for a karaoke bar Tian was opening in Flushing, with the approvals coming via a number of months later, prompting Lewis-Martin to textual content Tian: “Keep a bottle of champagne cold for your sister.”
Ingrid Lewis Martin (seated at proper) and Glenn D. Martin (seated at left) are pictured throughout their arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom on Aug. 21, 2025. (Curtis Means for DailyMail / Pool)
Months earlier, Lewis-Martin helped Tian safe a metropolis Well being + Hospitals contract for a enterprise affiliate to deal with asylum seekers in an area lodge, in keeping with courtroom papers. That deal netted the unidentified enterprise affiliate $12 million, $1.2 million of which Tiang acquired as a kickback, prosecutors cost.
As soon as that lodge contract was up, Lewis-Martin tried to strain metropolis officers to award a brand new, expanded deal for the affiliate that will contain a second lodge web site.
“Whatever site [Tian] wants, I need him to get them,” Lewis-Martin mentioned in a Could 2024 name with Hamilton intercepted by investigators. “Because that’s our f–king people.”
Prosecutors say the contract finally was not expanded after Lewis-Martin, Hamilton and Tian all had their electronics seized by investigators upon returning to New York from a visit to Japan in September 2024 the day after Adams was indicted on federal corruption costs.
Lots of the bribes Lewis-Martin and her co-defendants are accused of taking got here in types apart from money, prosecutors say.
She’s accused of accepting practically $10,000 in free meals, like octopus and crab muffins, for 4 completely different occasions at Metropolis Corridor and Gracie Mansion — the mayor’s official residence — from an unidentified caterer she helped safe a residential renovation allow for by pressuring the Buildings Division.
Yechiel Landau is pictured throughout his arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom on Aug. 21, 2025. (Curtis Means for DailyMail / Pool)
Lewis-Martin and Hamilton are additionally accused of accepting free renovations of their properties from Yechiel Landau, a developer who’s criminally charged with bankrolling the residential enhancements in trade for his or her assist with advancing building initiatives in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Moreover, Lewis-Martin allegedly helped Tony and Gina Argento push for killing town Division of Transportation’s McGuinness Boulevard bike lane mission in Brooklyn, which they opposed, in trade for getting a visitor look on the Hulu present “Godfather of Harlem,” which was filmed on the Argentos’ studios in Greenpoint.
Within the temporary look, Lewis-Martin acts as a lady greeting Harlem crime boss Bumpy Johnson, performed by Forest Whitaker, as he walks right into a bar. “Hi Bumpy,” Lewis-Martin will be seen telling Whitaker earlier than he asks how she’s doing. “It’s going good,” she replies.
Lewis-Martin obtained paid about $800 for the TV hit and likewise netted membership within the Display screen Actors Guild union, an achievement she described as a “bucket list” merchandise in a September 2022 textual content to Gina Argento.
“We are ignoring them and continuing with our plan. They can kiss my ass,” Lewis-Martin, following her “Godfather of Harlem” look, texted Gina Argento in July 2023 after Argento voiced concern about pro-bike lane teams calling on Adams’ administration to approve the McGuinness redesign, in keeping with prosecutors.
“3,500 children live within a quarter-mile of McGuinness. Their safety is worth a hell of a lot more than $2,500 and a guest appearance on a tv show,” Transportation Alternate options, a grassroots group that has lengthy advocated for the McGuiness redesign, wrote on X in response to the brand new costs towards Lewis-Martin, referencing a $2,500 money bribe she additionally allegedly pocketed from the Argentos.
Gina Argento and Anthony Argento are pictured throughout their arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom on Aug. 21, 2025. (Curtis Means for DailyMail / Pool)
After Lewis-Martin resigned from Metropolis Corridor in late 2024 shortly earlier than her first indictment, the DOT moved ahead with finishing the redesign. Earlier than resigning, Lewis-Martin was seen as some of the highly effective figures at Metropolis Corridor, notably proclaiming herself the mayor’s “sister ordained by God.”
Lewis-Martin orchestrated the sprawling bribery schemes all through her time in Adams’ administration, beginning in March 2022 and spanning at the very least via November 2024, courtroom papers say.
Characterizing her alleged crimes as “classic bribery conspiracies that had a deep and wide-ranging impact on city government,” Bragg mentioned in an announcement his years-long invesitgation into Lewis-Martin is continuous and being performed collectively with town Division of Investigation.
“Lewis-Martin consistently overrode the expertise of public servants so she could line her own pockets,” his assertion mentioned. “While she allegedly received more than $75,000 in bribes and an appearance on a TV show, every other New Yorker lost out.”
The brand new indictments don’t accuse the mayor of partaking in any of the alleged prison wrongdoing.
However the instances come at a politically inopportune time for Adams. Operating as an unbiased, Adams faces lengthy odds in November’s mayoral election, as he nonetheless reels from political fallout from his personal federal corruption indictment, which was dismissed in April by President Trump’s Justice Division as a part of a controversial association that many say has left him beholden to Trump.
Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Each day Information
Mayor Eric Adams and Ingrid Lewis-Martin are pictured throughout a press convention at Metropolis Corridor on Tuesday, Could 28, 2024. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Each day Information)
Adams’ marketing campaign wouldn’t say whether or not Lewis-Martin’s function on the reelection effort can be modified in gentle of the brand new indictments, however the mayor mentioned in an announcement he is aware of her as a “devoted public servant” and that his “prayers are with her and her family.”
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral nominee who’s polling as the favourite to win in November, mentioned the indictments clarify “we need a new era of leadership.”
“Corruption isn’t just about what a politician gains, it’s about what the public loses, and right now, New Yorkers are paying the price as another flurry of indictments continue to erode their trust in our democracy and distract from the affordability crisis that demands action and urgency,” Mamdani mentioned.
Unbiased mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo, at a press convention this afternoon, mentioned Lewis-Martin’s indictments made it much more clear that this can be a two-person race between him and Mamdani.
“I don’t believe he is viable,” Cuomo mentioned of Adams. “I believe this is a race that is between myself and the assemblyman. And I think that was the case, I think that’s more clearly the case.”
“There seems to be this never ending series of government corruption that just continues,” Cuomo continued. “And it’s sad, it’s embarrassing, it’s depressing.”
Within the first case Lewis-Martin and Martin II have been indicted in, which stays pending, prosecutors from Bragg’s workplace alleged the mother-son duo took $100,000 in bribes from two businessmen in trade for intervening in metropolis buildings approval processes.
Most of these alleged bribes have been funnelled to Martin II, who used the cash to purchase a Porsche and different luxurious items, in keeping with prosecutors. In a brand new wrinkle, prosecutors wrote within the newest indictments that Martin II additionally used a number of the cash he obtained from Tian to fund the Porsche buy.
Division of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber mentioned one of many worst penalties of the alleged crimes dedicated by Lewis-Martin and her co-defendants is the truth that the operations of public companies serving New Yorkers could also be compromised.
“In light of today’s charges, DOI is notifying the relevant agencies and requesting a review of the permits and design determinations described in the Indictments,” she mentioned in an announcement, “so that each agency can review these decisions free of any improper influence.”
With Molly Crane-Newman
Initially Revealed: August 20, 2025 at 5:22 PM EDT
