Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the brash consigliere of embattled Mayor Eric Adams, was accused Thursday of buying and selling favors for 2 New York Metropolis hoteliers in trade for bribes — together with a $100,000 mortgage for her DJ son to purchase a Porsche.
The highly-anticipated indictment in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom ranges bribery expenses towards Lewis-Martin, her son Glenn Martin II, hotelier Mayank Dwivedi and actual property investor Raizada Vaid.
“We allege that Ingrid Lewis-Martin engaged in a long-running bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy scheme by using her position and authority as the Chief Advisor to the Mayor of the City of New York to illegally influence Department of Buildings and other city decisions in exchange for more than $100,000 in cash and benefits for herself and her son, Glenn Martin II,” stated Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg in a press release.
Lewis-Martin, 63, allegedly expedited allow hold-ups with the Glass Ceiling, a rooftop bar close to Herald Sq., and the Decrease East Facet’s Resort on Rivington, courtroom paperwork state.
Dwivedi and Vaid then gave her son, who goes by the identify DJ Suave Luciano, two $50,000 checks, courtroom paperwork state.
The DJ deposited the money in an account shared together with his public servant mom, after which transferred $50,000 to his enterprise, Suave Productions, earlier than utilizing it to concern a $113,000 cashier’s examine to purchase a Porsche, prosecutors allege.
Lewis-Martin additionally allegedly tried to cowl up the conspiracy by telling the group to make use of Sign, a third-party encrypted messaging app, and use coded language, prosecutors stated.
She surrendered to authorities early Thursday, arriving at Manhattan Prison Courtroom carrying a leopard-print prime and daring purple lipstick alongside along with her son.
They’re anticipated to be arraigned Thursday afternoon following a press convention held by Bragg and metropolis Division of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Stauber.
Manhattan prosecutors and DOI investigators collectively ran the probe into Lewis-Martin, who’s a longtime confidante to Adams — and is now the highest-profile metropolis officers to face expenses for the reason that mayor himself was indicted on federal corruption expenses in late September.
Lewis-Martin’s anticipation of legal expenses led to her sudden resignation over the weekend, officers stated — in addition to defiant, preemptive Monday information convention along with her lawyer Arthur Aidala.
The pair lambasted Bragg’s workplace for allegedly conducting a political prosecution.
“I’m here falsely accused of something,” Lewis-Martin stated. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know that I was told that it’s something that’s illegal, and I have never done anything illegal in my capacity in government.”
The indictment provides to Adams’ authorized issues as a number of legal investigations shut in on his interior circle, with the mayor dealing with unprecedented federal bribery and corruption expenses by Manhattan federal prosecutors.
Lewis-Martin had averted the embarrassing federal raids and subpoenas that befell lots of her colleagues — till, that’s, she returned from a trip to Japan in late September.
State and federal authorities have been ready for Lewis-Martin when her aircraft landed at JFK Airport, with the DA investigators taking her cellphone and feds slapping her with a subpoena for testimony in Adams’ corruption case.
The DA’s probe centered on Metropolis Corridor’s leasing of business properties, the New York Occasions first reported. These investigators additionally seized the telephones of 4 others, together with prime metropolis actual property official Jesse Hamilton and Diana Boutross, a personal dealer concerned in metropolis leases, sources instructed The Put up.
After the airport shock, Lewis-Martin made the beautiful, if characteristically combative, step of showing on Aidala’s radio present to defend herself.
“We are imperfect, but we’re not thieves, and I do believe that in the end, that the New York City public will see that we have not done anything illegal to the magnitude or scale that requires the federal government and the DA office to investigate us,” she stated.
Lewis-Martin has served as Adams’ prime adviser in Metropolis Corridor, and she or he as soon as described herself as his closest ally and — as she as soon as instructed the New York Occasions — the mayor’s “sister ordained by God.”
However the pair’s decades-long relationship has develop into strained in latest months, as sources instructed The Put up the once-inseparable duo have barely spoken.
Lewis-Martin abruptly resigned from Metropolis Corridor on Sunday, a couple of month earlier than she was scheduled to give up.
The bribery expenses additionally put a highlight on her son, DJ Suave Luciano.
Past brunch gigs and releasing booty-bumping music movies to his 79 YouTube subscribers, DJ Suave Luciano has carried out at Rise Up NYC concert events and different metropolis gigs.
Lewis-Martin launched her son throughout a June reception celebrating Caribbean-American heritage by cracking a joke that the DJ was working the city-run occasion free of charge.
“He always volunteers,” she stated. “They try to write us up in the papers, but he doesn’t take any money. He’s a volunteer. Just saying that.”
The indictment additionally proved embarrassing for Dwivedi’s picture as a hotelier catering to the wealthy.
Dwivedi’s portfolio contains The Maidstone resort and The Capri Southampton, two luxurious Hamptons accommodations.
He manages the Capri on behalf of superstar lawyer Mark Geragos, whose daughter Teny Geragos is Dwivedi’s lawyer.
She instructed The Put up Wednesday night time that Bragg “has an incomplete and inaccurate view of the facts.”
“We look forward to setting the record straight and proving Mr Dwivedi’s complete innocence,” she stated.
— Extra reporting by Ronny Reyes
