Overview:
This investigation by THE CITY details how an undisclosed network of fundraisers—business figures and political allies—bundled donations for Mayor Eric Adams’ campaigns by using a loophole that exempts campaign-sponsored events from intermediary disclosure, raising ethics concerns and triggering scrutiny from New York City’s Campaign Finance Board.
Greg B. Smith and Yoav Gonen | THE CITY
In October 2023, Mayor Eric Adams showed up for the opening of a new office of a big personal injury law firm, Morgan & Morgan, smiling and posing for selfies in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport. The firm made sure to post photos of the mayor’s seemingly random visit on social media.
The visit, however, was anything but random.
A few months earlier, Adams himself had recruited one of the firm’s lawyers to raise campaign donations for his re-election bid and had granted the lawyer an exclusive in-person sit-down arranged by his chief fundraiser. The lawyer then bundled $21,000 worth of contributions for the mayor.
None of this was in the public eye.
The law firm Morgan & Morgan touted in a social media post about Mayor Eric Adams dropping by the opening of their new South Street Seaport office. Credit: Via LinkedIn
That’s because of a loophole in the law that says campaigns do not have to disclose bundlers as intermediaries — money-raisers who choreograph multiple donations to campaigns — if they’re doing this fundraising in connection to an event paid for, in part or whole, by the campaign. In this case, it was a performance of the musical “New York, New York” the Adams campaign had arranged at the St. James Theater off Broadway, forking over some $75,000 for seats.
The personal injury lawyer was hardly alone. An investigation by THE CITY has found that Adams did not disclose an army of these secret bundlers to the city’s Campaign Finance Board — a lapse that is legal, but ethically dubious, campaign finance experts say.
Hundreds of pages of texts with Adams’ chief fundraiser Brianna Suggs covering both the 2021 and 2025 campaigns that were released recently reveal the identities of these apparent bundlers as they exchanged detailed lists of potential donors they had identified for her and, in some cases, promised to raise six-figures worth of donations.
They include John Sampson, the once top leader in the state Senate who was sentenced to five years prison time after his conviction on obstruction of justice charges; Scott Sartiano, the founder of Zero Bond (the mayor’s favorite NYC hotspot), the lobbyist George Fontas and Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Queens), a supporter who for a time made frequent appearances at the mayor’s press conferences.
Mayor Eric Adams leads a Bronx press conference about the city and state’s efforts to seize illegal cannabis products, July 31, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The court filings also reveal a more prominent fundraising role than previously known for Winnie Greco, the longtime Adams volunteer aide and fundraiser, who served as his Asian affairs director at City Hall from January 2022 through October 2024 — and who recently attempted to hand a CITY reporter $300 in cash stuffed in a bag of potato chips.
In each case, the texts document these avid Adams supporters gathering multiple checks, often for the maximum allowed ($2,100), to shower the campaign with tens of thousands of dollars — much of which Adams then used to claim matching public dollars. None were disclosed because their money-raising was connected to a campaign-sponsored event — a workaround election experts say happens on occasion, but not to the degree the Adams’ campaign employed.
“These people are clearly bundlers,” Susan Lerner of the non-partisan watchdog group Common Cause said after reviewing hundreds of pages of Suggs’ texts. “If there is some discrepancy in the definition of bundlers that doesn’t allow for them to be disclosed because it’s a campaign-sponsored event, that needs to be closed. They’re bundlers. Period. And bundlers need to be disclosed.”
Under city law, campaigns are required to disclose the identities of intermediaries who raise cash at non-campaign-sponsored events. Disclosing the identities of bundlers lets voters actually see who is trying to gain extra influence with candidates by pulling together multiple donations well above the maximum amount individuals are allowed to give.
One Hour With the Mayor
In the case of the personal injury lawyer, the arrangement started with the mayor.
It began in the heady days of late spring 2023, before Suggs’ home was raided by the FBI, before the mayor’s phones were seized, before he was indicted by federal prosecutors, before the taint of corruption triggered by sweeping investigations and indictments that would force the resignations of much of the top tier of his administration. At the time, he was viewed as cruising to a second term and was on the prowl for campaign dollars.
That May, Suggs texted Reuven Moskowitz, at the time a lawyer at Morgan & Morgan, informing him that the mayor had sent her his contact information “in regards to the fundraiser he [Adams] is hosting on June 16th.” How the mayor obtained this information is not clear. Neither Moskowitz nor Todd Shapiro, the mayor’s campaign spokesperson, responded to THE CITY’s questions about the genesis of their relationship.
While Suggs and Moskowitz were discussing fundraising for the Mayor, she set up a meeting between him and Adams at one of the mayor’s favored restaurants, Osteria La Baia in Midtown Manhattan. In this text exchange, Moskowitz asked Suggs, “How long do I get to sit with the mayor?” She responded, “one hour.”
After the meeting, Moskowitz texted Suggs, thanking her and stating he was “still on such a high from the evening with you and the Mayor.” Then, in the same text, he asked for information about “helping” with the June 16 fundraiser.
Brianna Suggs attends a Mayor Eric Adams reelection rally at City Hall, June 26, 2025. Credit: Katie Honan/THE CITY
Subsequent texts with Suggs show the two discussing his efforts to scare up contributions. At one point, she sent him a list of his donors that had “come in from your names so far who’d given.” He immediately responded, “I am going to check in on the others.”
Campaign finance records show 10 donations of $2,100 each from Suggs’ list who gave to Adams, all on June 7. They include Moskowitz and six other lawyers at Morgan & Morgan.
“It sounds like they could be bundling,” said Sarah Steiner, a lawyer who vetted contributions for Kathryn Garcia’s 2021 mayoral bid. In that campaign, Garcia disclosed more than 40 intermediaries, while Adams claimed only four. In the 2025 campaign, he’s claiming 12, but Moskowitz isn’t on that list because of the campaign-sponsored event loophole. (Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani has 15, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo has 76, and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa has zero).
“To the best of my knowledge that was not done in the 2021 campaign where I represented Kathryn,” Steiner said. “Kathryn ran a very careful, dotting-your-Is, crossing-your-Ts campaign. That’s not something that was done. The scale that you’re describing is also more than I am used to seeing, even if you scale it down for smaller campaigns.”
She said the discussion about Moskowitz getting one-on-one time with the mayor while also discussing fundraising raises other ethical questions about potential pay-to-play.
“It’s a really fine line because we don’t know what was discussed at the meeting in the restaurant,” Steiner said. “There’s no quid pro quo in the segue from, ‘Gee we had a great meal’ to ‘What do you want me to do next?’ But it would be fair to assume that there is a connection between the meeting and the fundraising.”
Regarding Adams’ appearance at the Morgan & Morgan office opening, Steiner noted, “I think it’s untoward to do a law office opening as the mayor of New York. It’s not illegal. It’s just kind of de classe’.”
Adams’ campaign spokesperson did not respond to THE CITY’s questions about Moskowitz, his meeting with the mayor or the mayor’s appearance at the Morgan & Morgan office opening. Instead, he issued a brief statement noting that Moskowitz and several other would-be bundlers referenced in Suggs’ texts “did not have to be disclosed because the event was a campaign-sponsored event.”
‘Will Raise 100k’
Newly released court filings reviewed by THE CITY also reveal a fundraising role for former state Senator John Sampson, an ally of Adams since they both served in Albany together starting in 2006.
In one July 20, 2021 text to Suggs, he wrote, “Need dates after Labor Day to host a fundraiser with my boss Julio [Medina] and hotel owner. Will raise 100K.”
The text was written within months of Sampson’s release from federal prison and shortly after he was hired by Julio Medina, CEO of Exodus Transitional Community, to serve as the nonprofit’s site coordinator.
Exodus at the time operated a social services program for formerly incarcerated individuals at a Queens hotel owned by the developer Weihong Hu, where Sampson was helping to organize the fundraiser for Adams.
On Sept. 24, 2021, as THE CITY previously reported, Sampson, Medina and Hu joined Adams and eight others at a private VIP dining table in Hu’s hotel in Fresh Meadows for lobster and purple potatoes, while a larger group of donors mingled in a room nearby.
Former State Senator John Sampson walks near his Midtown office, April 26, 2024. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY
After his initial text to Suggs, Sampson lowered the fundraising goal for the event to “50-100k.” But he also tried to get two additional fundraisers on the books, which he said could bring in up to an additional $50,000. In one text from July 2021, Sampson wrote “my goal is to raise mini 250 before Nov.”
As he helped organize the fundraisers, Sampson asked Suggs to schedule a zoom call between Medina and Adams to discuss an initiative he referred to as the “Rikers Cultural Community.” The texts don’t show whether that meeting occurred.
Sampson went on to work for Hu as president of a company that managed some of her hotels starting around January 2023. As THE CITY previously reported, his work included committing to helping Hu land a migrant shelter contract, according to a former city government official. One of Hu’s Long Island City hotels scored a $7.5 million migrant contract in 2023 with the city’s Department of Homeless Services.
In May 2023 Sampson once again pitched in to help raise funds for the campaign, texting Suggs on the 31st to “Send me a link to the event ASAP.”
She sent him an invite to the St. James performance, and Sampson texted back, “Who to make the check out to?”
On June 8, he sent Suggs a list of seven $1,000 donors and wrote, “will have more to send once I confirm.”
In an interview with THE CITY, Sampson said his campaign assistance involved linking people who came to him wanting to hold fundraisers or make donations with Suggs.
“They reached out to me because they know that I know him,” Sampson said when reached by phone Friday. “I pass the information along to the campaign people and make sure everything is above board.”
‘Money Talks’
Winnie Greco, who was recently suspended from the Adams campaign after handing a CITY reporter cash in a potato chip bag, also played a larger than previously known role in the campaign’s fundraising efforts. Text messages Greco exchanged with Suggs show that Greco was behind a June 9, 2023 fundraising event hosted by Hu, the hotel developer, which was detailed in a prior investigative report by THE CITY.
A day earlier, Greco had organized a fundraiser at Chinatown restaurant Hakka Cuisine that was attended by numerous donors affiliated with a group vying to take over a city lease for the financially struggling East Broadway Mall, an event that was first reported by Documented.
The main bidder was an entity known as Broadway East Group (BEG) LLC, and it was supported by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of New York, whose head, Wade Li, owns Hakka Cuisine.
The court filings reveal that Greco helped directly secure donations to Adams’ campaign from individuals connected to the BEG group, even as she was meeting at the time with bidders on the East Broadway Mall lease as part of her government job. Greco sent screenshots to Suggs of eight donations made the night of the Hakka Cuisine fundraiser on June 8, five of which were from contributors connected to BEG members.
Winnie Greco, left, stands near then-mayoral candidate Eric Adams during a Long Island fundraiser in 2021. Credit: Screengrab via YouTube/Jerry Wang
Terry Chan, whose family built and operated the mall since construction was completed in 1988, said he met with Greco and the head of real estate for the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services, Jesse Hamilton, a number of weeks ahead of the June fundraiser.
DCAS is the city agency that oversees the East Broadway Mall lease, which Chan’s family was trying to renew under more favorable terms after filing for bankruptcy.
Chan told THE CITY that at his meeting with Greco and Hamilton, which also occurred at Hakka Cuisine, Greco effectively told him that “money talks” when it comes to winning the bid.
“Winnie basically says you have to come up with more money,” said Chan.
He said at the end of the meeting Greco stayed behind at Hakka Cuisine to meet with another bidder. Greco didn’t immediately respond to a detailed text message seeking comment.
The city announced a tentative deal with the BEG group for the East Broadway Mall lease in August of 2023. But that deal began to fall apart in early 2024 following FBI raids of Greco’s two homes in The Bronx.
A June 2024 article in the New York Daily News reported some jittery investors had jumped ship from BEG, while a letter filed in a bankruptcy proceeding by the Chan family alleged that one of the group’s investors was a former gangster.
But last month, the deal still went to BEG group, which DCAS officials say now consists of just two members.
‘Trip Wire’
In a past statement to THE CITY, Adams campaign lawyer, Vito Pitta, has contended, “It is not always immediately apparent when individuals are acting as intermediaries because campaigns largely rely on contributors to identify themselves as intermediaries after informing them of the rules.”
In the case of Scott Sartiano, co-founder of Zero Bond, the Noho private club the mayor frequents, it would be impossible for the campaign not to know.
Adams put him on his transition team after winning the election in 2021, then gave him a coveted appointment to the board of the Metropolitan Museum the next year. Plus Adams’ frequent late night appearances at his exclusive venue helped pump up the celebrity vibe of the place.
So it would appear Sartiano repaid the favor in the weeks leading up to the June 16, 2023 event at the St. James Theater. Suggs’ texts show Satriano sent her a list of 46 potential donors. Three days before the event, he texted her, “Can you send me updates of donors so I know who to call and remind etc.”
Two days later Sartiano texted Suggs that he was still chasing more money from the list of donors he’d sent her “who either said they would donate or didn’t donate. Please let me know who gave (and who didn’t) so I can reach out to them today.” Sartiano did not return THE CITY’s calls seeking comment.
Campaign finance records show Sartiano was able to raise at least $37,000 from the list of potential donors he sent to Suggs, a collection of donors he referred to as “my list”.
The campaign also paid Zero Bond more than $7,000 to hold events there, including a reception preceding the St. James Theater event.
Art Chang, a former member of the Campaign Finance Board, said Adams’ reliance on hidden bundlers goes to the broader issue of what he sees as the campaign’s flaunting of CFB rules to prevent voters from seeing individuals seeking undue influence with City Hall by raising big bucks for the mayor.
“The record keeping is so sloppy that it verges on impropriety,” Chang said, “but the idea that somebody who may have interests in front of some aspect of city government would be negotiating what kind of time, what kind of implicit arrangement the mayor might have with some donor – that is exactly the reason why the campaign finance board has these rules about the disclosure of intermediaries. It’s just plain wrong.”
Adams has sued the CFB over its continued refusal to award him matching funds. The board has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it is justified in denying him the funds because he appears to have already violated CFB laws and he has failed to adequately respond to the board’s requests for documentation about suspected intermediaries and possible straw donations.
John Kaehny, director of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany, noted that illegal straw donations — contributions that mask the true identity of the donor — are usually gathered by intermediaries, disclosed or not.
“Almost all straw donor scams are done by bundlers,” he said. “Bundler disclosure is like a trip wire for straw donors. If the bundler is disclosed, it’s easy to review who they raised contributions from. If the bundler is not reported, but campaign officials detect a cluster of straw donors, it gives campaign finance officials probable cause to issue subpoenas to find out what’s going on and a specific legal reason to deny a campaign public matching funds.”
Like this:
Loading…
Related
