NYC straw donor ringleader attended Gracie Mansion gala: Mayor Adams
Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged that he knows the man at the center of an alleged scheme to divert thousands of dollars in public money to his campaign from their overlapping careers at the NYPD.
Hizzoner’s remarks on Monday were the first he has made about the straw donor scandal since Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Dwayne Montgomery — the former police inspector — and five other men for allegedly using friends and relatives to make illegal donations to Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign.
Prosecutors have not accused Adams or any current city workers of wrongdoing.
Adams’ political operation has denied any involvement.
City Hall said Montgomery attended two events at the Mayor’s taxpayer-funded residence on the Upper East Side.
One event was a Mid-Autumn Festival on September 9, 2022. The other was a Cannabis Chamber of Commerce Event on November 3, 2022.
“I think he was at the Black History Month reception I believe, one of the receptions I recall seeing him from the stage I don’t know which one it was,” Adams told reporters during an unrelated press conference at City Hall.
Access to Gracie Mansion is tightly controlled and attendees are usually required to register to attend in advance due to security precautions.
During the press conference, Adams denied that Montgomery had ever visited him at City Hall, but acknowledged they had known each other for decades professionally via their overlapping careers at the NYPD.
“We all knew each other,” Adams said. “As a ranking member, you would know the other ranking members of color, there wasn’t many.”
He added: “I would see Dwayne at events while I’m moving around. He was very well known in Harlem.”
Montgomery was once the commander of the 28th Precinct, which covers much of Harlem.
The indictment filed Friday alleged that Montgomery, 64, orchestrated 23 donations in 2020 and 2021 that he then reimbursed them with his own money — an estimated $40,000 — all so he could get around donation caps.
Campaign finance rules in the Big Apple cap the maximum amount an individual can at $2,000; while 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.
The complex straw donation scheme laid out by prosecutors claims that Montgomery and his co-defendant, Shamsuddin Riza, who owns a construction company, held a fundraiser in Queens on Aug. 25, 2021, to raise money for Adams, 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.
Four other people were also named in the charging papers.
Additional reporting by Priscilla DeGregory
