The Post today reports that Brooklyn’s borough president, barely two months in office, is the first new, high-level city official to find himself under investigation. And it’s a doozy: soliciting funds for a non-profit organization he admits doesn’t even exist.
Today’s dispatch follows an earlier Post story describing how Eric Adams and his staff have been hitting up corporate groups on behalf of his “affiliated non-profit,” which he calls One Brooklyn.
Problem is, the state has no record of One Brooklyn. Even if it did exist, Adams would still need a waiver from the Conflicts of Interest Board before soliciting funds in a government office. He told The Post his office is “working closely” with the CIB, but it turns out that’s news to the board, too.
Adams was seeking funding for projects including a basketball event later this month at Barclays Center sponsored by New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony. Again, according to Barclays, no such event is on its schedule.
Politicians getting in trouble for the mixture of money and non-profits is an old story in New York. Leave it to Eric Adams to find a way to land himself in the hot seat for a non-profit that doesn’t even exist.