An aide to Mayor Eric Adams, who served as his longtime liaison to the Turkish community, has turned on him and is cooperating in the corruption investigation into Mr. Adams and his 2021 campaign, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. case.
The cooperation of the aide, Rana Abbasova, could represent a significant step forward in the sweeping corruption investigation, which has focused in part on whether Mr. Adams’s campaign conspired with the Turkish government to channel illegal foreign donations into campaign coffers – and whether Mr. Adams pressured fire department officials to sign the construction of a new high-rise Turkish consulate despite security concerns.
It is unclear what information Ms. Abbasova, protocol director of the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, provided to federal authorities. But she was involved in or had knowledge of some of Mr. Adams’s dealings with Turkish government officials and businessmen, according to emails. She also helped coordinate events and meetings with members of the Turkish community in New York and abroad and arranged some of his travels, accompanying him on two official trips to Turkey, records show.
Originally from Azerbaijan, Ms. Abbasova, 41, had worked for Mr. Adams for about four years in the Brooklyn borough president’s office before he became mayor. She began speaking with the team of FBI agents and federal prosecutors leading the corruption investigation in the weeks after the FBI searched her home on Nov. 2. The same day, agents also searched the homes of the mayor’s top fundraiser and a former Turkish Airlines executive.
Like the mayor and others under scrutiny in the investigation, Ms. Abbasova has not been formally accused of wrongdoing. It is unclear whether she signed a formal cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors in exchange for leniency or whether she will plead guilty to any crimes related to the alleged foreign donations scheme. But she has provided federal authorities with information about the cases they are investigating.
His lawyer, Rachel Maimin, declined to comment Monday, as did spokespeople for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI.
One of the lawyers representing Mr. Adams, Brendan R. McGuire, said in a statement that Ms. Abbasova’s cooperation was “not a new or significant development.” He noted that Adams administration officials had previously shared information with federal prosecutors about what they described as inappropriate actions taken by Ms. Abbasova after her home was searched.
“It is our understanding that Ms. Abbasova has spoken to investigators since her inappropriate conduct was reported by the administration in November,” the statement said.
People with knowledge of the matter said his actions involved somehow talking to another aide about communications.
Since the investigation became public, Mr. Adams has denied any wrongdoing and said he always tells his staff to follow the law.
Four days after searching the homes of Ms. Abbasova and others, FBI agents approached Mr. Adams on the street after an event at New York University in Greenwich Village. They asked his security guards to step aside, got into his car with him, served him with a court-authorized arrest warrant and seized his electronic devices. Since then, federal agents and prosecutors have taken little public action.
The search warrant at the Brooklyn home of the mayor’s top fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, detailed at least some of the possible crimes that FBI agents and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York were examining in the framework of the corruption investigation.
He said they are seeking evidence to support potential charges that include wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy, theft of federal funds and conspiracy to steal federal funds, as well as campaign contributions from nationals foreigners and conspiracy to make such contributions.
Federal authorities also gathered evidence suggesting that the head of Turkish Airlines, in coordination with Ms. Abbasova, helped arrange upgrades for Mr. Adams on Turkish Airlinesa company Mr Adams has touted – even telling a pro-government Turkish publication in 2017 that the airline “is my way of flying”.
Ms. Abbasova, who had served Mr. Adams as a volunteer in the borough president’s office before being hired full time in 2018, was suspended from her post as director of protocol in the days following the search from his home in New Jersey, but before this research became public.
The mayor’s team told the New York Post that he proactively placed her on leave after discovering the inappropriate actions cited by Mr. McGuire.
At the time, it was not publicly known that the same In the morning the FBI searched Ms. Suggs’s home, agents also descended on the New Jersey homes of Ms. Abbasova and Cenk Öcal, the former Turkish Airlines executive who was part of the government’s transition team. mayor. The New York Times reported on the research two weeks later. Mr. Öcal repeatedly refused to comment.
After the search of Ms. Suggs’ home, officers emerged with electronic devices and a cardboard folder labeled “Eric Adams.”
That day, Mr. Adams had planned to meet with federal officials in Washington about the migrant crisis, which he called an existential issue for New York City. But when he learned of the surgery, he canceled his public schedule and returned home. His office said only at the time that he wanted to “resolve a matter.”
When The Times reported on the search of Ms. Abbasova’s home, Mr. Adams’s spokesman suggested she was a “junior employee.” But she and Mr. Adams had a long-standing professional relationship.
Ms. Abbasova studied medicine and dentistry in Azerbaijan and Turkey before moving to the United States, where she continued her medical studies and entered public service, according to an application she filed to serve on the board of a charter school.
“Rana Abbasova is a proud Azerbaijani American who builds relationships with many ethnic and immigrant communities,” the application states.
During Mr. Adams’ first term as borough president, Ms. Abbasova helped him establish ties with Brooklyn’s small Turkish and Azerbaijani communities. She was given an office in Borough Hall.
In 2015, she visited Turkey with Mr. Adams on a trip funded by the Turkish consulate and the World Tourism Forum Institute, an organization that says it wants to grow global tourism.
In 2018, Ms. Abbasova joined Mr. Adams’ paid team as a “community coordinator,” earning $50,000 a year, according to city records. By 2021, her title had changed to “compliance unit assistant,” according to a list provided to Mr. Adams’ successor in Brooklyn, Antonio Reynoso.
In this position, “she was responsible for international relations and maintaining relationships between the borough president and stakeholders, including Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries, Muslim and Russian-speaking communities, and community organizations.” non-profit”, according to its town hall. Biography.
When Mr. Adams became mayor in 2022, Ms. Abbasova joined City Hall, where she worked as “director of protocol for international affairs,” a position in which she “advises and assists the mayor” and others “on questions of diplomatic protocol and etiquette”. ”, according to the biography. She was earning about $80,000 a year when she was furloughed.
Brooklyn’s Turkish community is not large, according to Social Explorer, a demographic data company. As of 2022, there are 4,625 Brooklynites of Turkish descent, making it the 38th largest group of foreign-born New Yorkers in the borough.
Role Ms. Abbasova Filled in Brooklyn No Longer Exists, Mr. Reynoso Spokesperson told the Times Last year.
Ms. Abbasova worked in tandem with Mr. Öcal, the former New York director of Turkish Airlines, while in the borough president’s office, the Times previously reported. Mr. Öcal had a relationship with Mr. Adams and was one of hundreds of people on his mayoral transition team.
She helped organize a dinner that Mr. Öcal attended while Mr. Adams was borough president with Turkish consular officials and board members of the Turken Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit organization with close ties with the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
She also helped arrange Mr. Adams’ appearance at a 2019 Turkish Airlines gala at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan, where he gave a brief speech.
Ms. Abbasova was also proposed as a board member in 2015 of the prospective charter school, Mentora International, which applied to operate in New York and was backed by Enver Yücel, a Turkish entrepreneur and philanthropist who met Ms. .Adams in New York. Türkiye and Brooklyn. New York State rejected Mentora’s application and the charter school did not open its doors.
Federal investigators sought records related to campaign contributions from people associated with Bay Atlantic University, a nonprofit college and graduate school in Washington, D.C., founded by Mr. Yücel, in the search warrant that ‘They got to search Ms. Suggs’ home.
Mr. Adams’ mayoral campaign received a total of $10,000 in contributions from five Bay Atlantic University employees on September 27, 2021, a week after the dedication of the new Turkish consulate building in Manhattan , and returned the donations the following month. After Mr. Adams won the mayoral election in November, Mr. Yücel posted a photo of them together on Instagram.
“I would like to cordially congratulate my dear friend Eric Adams on his new role as the new mayor of New York,” the caption reads.
Emma G. Fitzsimmons And Nicole Hong reports contributed. Susan C. Beachy contributed to the research.
