A former aide to Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday admitted choreographing an illegal donation scheme aimed at generating matching funds for the mayor’s 2021 campaign, contending he was “instructed” on how to do this by a campaign volunteer.
Mohammed Bahi, who served as one of the mayor’s liaisons to the Muslim community, entered a guilty plea in Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiracy, even after the Trump Justice Department forced the same judge to dismiss a criminal case against the mayor involving the allegations Bahi admitted to.
Bahi became the second individual to plead guilty to orchestrating illegal donations highlighted in the now-defunct indictment of Adams. In December a Turkish businessman, Erden Arkan, admitted to a scheme in which he helped launder illegal donations from foreign sources to Adams’ campaign through U.S. citizens who made straw donations. Arkan has yet to be sentenced.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office had charged Bahi back in October, just a few days after they unsealed an indictment alleging Adams committed bribery and campaign fraud, in part by seeking and accepting straw donations in his pursuit of public matching funds. He obtained $10 million in matching funds from the Campaign Finance Board in his 2021 campaign but has failed to receive any in his current re-election bid, following repeated objections from the board.
In the criminal complaint filed against Bahi, prosecutors alleged that in December 2020, when he was an Adams campaign volunteer, he arranged for an Uzbeki businessman based in Brooklyn to funnel $10,000 in donations to Adams’ campaign — passing four of the $2,000 donations through company employees. The campaign submitted all the contributions to the public matching program, which provides $8 for every $1 contributed by New York City residents on the first $250 per donor.
In pleading guilty Tuesday, Bahi, 41, told Judge Dale Ho that he had been “instructed” by a volunteer with the Adams campaign to tell the businessman whose employees would make the contributions that the donations could be reimbursed. He did not name the volunteer.
He said he then informed the businessman, identified in court documents as Tolib Mansurov, to arrange for the employees to give $2,000 each — the maximum allowed — and then secretly reimburse them, an arrangement strictly forbidden by city campaign finance law.
When Mansurov was confronted by law enforcement investigating Adams’ campaign finance practices in June 2024, he informed Bahi, who told him to deny that he’d reimbursed the donors, prosecutors alleged. Bahi then relayed this information directly to Adams during a hastily arranged meeting at City Hall where both men left their cell phones outside the door, according to search warrant records unsealed by Ho.
During that meeting, Bahi said Adams told him he was confident the businessman was “strong” and would not cooperate with law enforcement, the complaint alleged.
During his plea appearance, Bahi did not address any aspect of his direct communications with Adams about the illegal donation scheme. Adams has repeatedly insisted he had no direct knowledge of any dubious fundraising and implied lower-level subordinates were to blame.
He also did not speak about the allegation that he deleted an encrypted communications app Signal on his cell phone after learning the FBI were trying to serve a search warrant on him at his home.
Mansurov eventually admitted to participating in the scheme and agreed to cooperate with law enforcement in the hopes of receiving leniency in connection with the Adams investigation. In search warrant affidavits, Mansurov was identified as working with the Uzbekistan government to influence Adams.
Following Bahi’s plea, Adams’ campaign spokesperson Todd Shapiro said, “Mayor Adams has spent his career fighting for integrity in public service and will continue to do so. Our campaign follows the law, complies with all regulations, and will not be distracted from focusing on the real issues facing New Yorkers — public safety, affordability, and opportunity for all.”
Bahi and his family, he added, “are in the Mayor’s prayers.”
Bahi’s intention to enter a guilty plea was first announced on Feb. 7, but went into a holding pattern days later after the Trump Justice Department ordered the Manhattan U.S. attorney to dismiss the mayor’s case, arguing that it was essential to win Adams’ full cooperation with the White House on its immigration deportation campaign.
Then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon refused to follow the Justice Department’s order and resigned. The deputy attorney general who issued the order, Emil Bove, personally took over the case and demanded Ho approve the dismissal motion.
In April Ho did just that, but cast a shadow over the process, noting that the Justice Department had not weighed the merits of the case.
“Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of an indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,” the judge asserted.
During Bahi’s plea appearance, it was revealed that the prosecutors have agreed to an extremely light potential prison sentence of between zero and six months, far below the maximum five years allowed for the wire fraud conspiracy charge Bahi admitted to. A spokesperson for interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said the office would have no comment on Bahi’s plea deal.
Bahi and his attorney, Derek Adams, declined to comment following the hearing. Bahi’s sentencing is set for Nov. 18.