Six people, including ex-NYC cop, indicted in straw donor scheme to curry favor with Eric Adams: DA

nypost.com ^ | July 7, 2023 | Priscilla DeGregory and Nolan Hicks

[lowbridge]

Six people, including a former NYPD cop, have been indicted in a straw donor scheme allegedly cooked up to try to curry favor with then-mayoral candidate Eric Adams.

Ringleader Dwayne Montgomery — a former NYPD inspector and current head of integrity for a municipal workers union — used friends and relatives as straw donors to Adams’ mayoral campaign to cash in on the city’s generous matching fund system for political donations, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office alleges.

Neither Mayor Adams nor any current city workers are accused of wrongdoing in the case. Adams’ campaign has denied any involvement in the scheme.

Prosecutors allege that between 2020 and 2021, Montgomery, 64, orchestrated 23 straw donations but reimbursed them later with his own money to the tune of $40,000 — all so he could get around donation caps.

In New York City, an individual can only donate up to $2,000; a business owner who wants city contracts can only donate $400. Under the Campaign Finance Board’s matching program, if someone donated $250, the city would chip in eight times more — or another $2,000.

Montgomery and co-defendant Shamsuddin Riza, who owns a construction company, held a fundraiser in Queens on Aug. 25, 2021, to raise money for the campaign, prosecutors say.

Montgomery also allegedly worked with an unnamed campaign employee to help organize a virtual fundraiser for Adams a year earlier in August 2020.

Riza, 70, orchestrated eight of his own straw donations with the help of Montgomery and Ronald Peek, 65, the DA alleges.

Riza then instructed Yahya Mushtaq and Shahid Mushtaq — who own construction safety company Ecosafety Consultants — on how to carry out a straw donor scheme.

[AnthonySoprano]

.
What about Joe’s business?

[Freedumb]

Luckily Mayor Adams is clean as the driven snow. Just like his hero President Obammy, the only virgin in the whorehouse.

[Fledermaus]

Unions are corrupt and ptotect the weakest workers.

[V_TWIN]

Yep......probably Adam’s idea all along......or a scheme he thought up in the past.

[Robert DeLong]

the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office alleges

Is this some kind of ploy to show that they are not biased against Trump?

Don't be surprised when they quietly drop all charges.

[Col Frank Slade]

“Currently head of integrity for a municipal workers union”.

(Almost fell off the chair laughing.)

[Robert DeLong]

I never made it that far I guess. 🤣

[frank ballenger]

Usually NYC mayors skate for years until rubbing some crime boss the wrong way and having stories surface suddenly.

Adams must be unlucky or someone wants him out of office.

[Robert357]

“.....current head of integrity for a municipal workers union — used friends and relatives as straw donors to Adams’ mayoral campaign to cash in on the city’s generous matching fund system for political donations.....”

NYC Head of union integrity......oxymoron if I ever heard one.

Can someone get Adams disbarred? Isn’t there enough evidence to start the proceedings?

[mcenedo]

Under the Campaign Finance Board’s matching program, if someone donated $250, the city would chip in eight times more — or another $2,000.

WTF????

[EinNYC]

Adams is a thoroughly racist, bigoted, corrupt piece of excrement. Easily one of the worst mayors to ever sully the halls of Gracie Mansion (the mayoral residence). And that’s saying something, considering his predecessor was the grifter and moron DumblASSio.