Adams Taps NYC’s Elite to Raise $730,000 for Legal Defense Fund

(Bloomberg) -- New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s wealthy friends aren’t abandoning him in his time of need.

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The first-term Democrat, who is facing a federal criminal probe into his 2021 campaign fundraising, has collected roughly $732,000 in donations for his legal defense from some of New York’s elite, including billionaire Access Industries LLC founder Len Blavatnik, fertilizer magnate Alexander Rovt and cryptocurrency investor Brock Pierce.

More than 200 individuals have donated to the fund Adams created in November to help defray the costs of his legal bills in connection with the probe, according to a filing released this week by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is examining whether the mayor’s successful 2021 campaign improperly accepted donations from people with ties to the Turkish government. Adams hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing.

The investigation blew into public view in early November when federal agents raided the homes of Adams’s campaign fundraiser Brianna Suggs, administration aide Rana Abbasova and former Turkish Airlines official Cenk Ocal. Days later, federal agents seized Adams’s mobile phones and an iPad in connection with the probe.

Blavatnik and his wife, Emily, each donated $5,000, the maximum allowed, as did Pierce, Rovt and his wife, Olga. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also gave $5,000. State Assembly Member Jennifer Rajkumar, a Democrat from Queens, donated $2,500. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

The fund has spent nearly $440,000 since mid-November, including $397,000 paid to Wilmer Hale, the law firm representing Adams in the investigation. Adams retained as his counsel Wilmer Hale attorneys Boyd Johnson and Brendan McGuire, both former Southern District prosecutors. McGuire served as the mayor’s chief counsel for more than a year before returning to Wilmer Hale a few months ago.

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