Former Metropolis Corridor aide Mohamed Bahi was sentenced Tuesday to a few years probation for serving to funnel bogus donations into Mayor Adams’ 2021 marketing campaign coffers.
In handing down the sentence, Decide Dale Ho stated throughout a listening to in Manhattan Federal Court docket that the “elephant in the room” was the truth that President Trump’s administration earlier this yr tossed Adams’ corruption indictment, which charged the mayor with collaborating in straw donor schemes.
“It is hard to escape the impression that Mr. Bahi is left here holding the bag,” stated Ho, who ordered that Bahi should serve one of many three years of probation in house confinement.
In August, Bahi pleaded responsible to wire fraud conspiracy for serving to to prepare a fundraiser in December 2020 throughout which workers of the United Elite Group, a Manhattan actual property agency, contributed $10,000 in bogus donations to Adams’ mayoral marketing campaign.
Tolib Mansurov, the agency’s CEO, reimbursed the staff for the donations in violation of federal and native legal guidelines, unlocking tens of hundreds extra {dollars} in illicit public matching funds for the soon-to-be mayor’s marketing campaign, in line with courtroom information and prosecutors.
Mansurov, a distinguished member of town’s Uzbek group with main actual estate-related enterprise pursuits, was advised he might get “influence” with Adams’ incoming administration in trade for bundling the unlawful donations, in line with prosecutors. Mansurov was by no means criminally charged.
Mohamed Bahi.
In an ironic twist, Adams — who critics have accused of being beholden to Trump for the reason that Division of Justice quashed the mayor’s corruption indictment this previous spring — was on Tuesday touring to Uzbekistan for a taxpayer-funded journey to fulfill with officers from that nation’s authorities.
Strolling out of courtroom after his sentencing, Bahi was advised by a reporter that the mayor was en path to Uzbekistan.
When knowledgeable the mayor is, in actual fact, getting the journey lined with metropolis {dollars}, Bahi stated: “It is what it is. I’m content. I’m happy this is over, it’s crazy … I hope this makes me a better person moving forward.”
Spokespeople for the mayor didn’t instantly return requests for touch upon Bahi’s sentencing.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace had requested Ho to ship Bahi to jail for at the very least six months.
The decide, who additionally oversaw Adams’ case, dismissed that request, partially, by referencing the truth that the mayor bought off scot-free after the Trump administration stepped in to undo his prosecution.
“What am I to make of a person above him, the mayor, had his indictment against him dismissed?” Ho stated.
In dropping the mayor’s prosecution, the Trump administration didn’t say it was doing so based mostly on the deserves of the case. Reasonably, a Trump appointee wrote in courtroom papers the administration wanted the case gone to ensure that Adams to higher help within the president “mass deportation” agenda — a caveat that prompted various profession prosecutors who labored on the case to resign in protest.
Adams’ journey to Uzbekistan comes as he prepares to depart workplace Jan. 1, having in late September deserted his bid to get reelected as he confronted report low approval rankings.
The journey, which follows Adams visited Israel over the weekend, comes as he has stated he’s engaged on lining up a post-Metropolis Corridor job that includes a global element.
Adams, the primary mayor in trendy New York historical past to face legal indictment, maintained he by no means did something mistaken and had pleaded not responsible to all expenses towards him earlier than the Trump administration stepped in and threw out his case.
Bahi, who was Adams’ Muslim group liaison at Metropolis Corridor, is the primary member of the mayor’s administration to be criminally convicted as a part of the corruption scandal that rocked the mayor’s first time period. Erden Arkan, a Turkish businessman, was additionally sentenced to probation earlier this yr for serving to orchestrate a separate straw donor scheme benefitting Adams’ 2021 marketing campaign.
Adams’ indictment alleged the Arkan and Bahi straw donation schemes have been a part of a wider conspiracy the mayor engaged in to safe bribes and unlawful marketing campaign contributions, largely from Turkish authorities operatives, in trade for political favors.
One of the vital particular allegations in Adams’ indictment was that he in late 2021, shortly earlier than being sworn in as mayor, pressured the FDNY to drop fireplace security violations on the Turkish consulate in Manhattan so the constructing might open in time for a go to by the nation’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
When it got here to Mansurov, the mayor’s indictment alleged he saved in contact with him after taking workplace, together with in February 2023, when the true property govt allegedly sought Adams’ assist to resolve a stop-work order at a luxurious apartment venture. Simply over per week later, the stop-work order was lifted, the indictment expenses.
The case towards Adams alleged that Bahi knowledgeable the mayor when Mansurov was served a subpoena from the feds searching for information associated to his donations. The feds, in charging Bahi, alleged he advised Mansurov that Adams “believed” Mansurov wouldn’t cooperate with the feds.
