A onetime senior aide to Mayor Eric Adams who was charged with organizing an illegal straw donor scheme for the mayor has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed Friday.
Mohamed Bahi, formerly one of the mayor’s liaisons to the Muslim community, was initially charged in October with witness tampering and obstruction of justice in a criminal complaint that alleged he had direct conversations with Adams about the campaign donation scheme.
The feds alleged in that complaint that Bahi spoke with the mayor hours after the FBI showed up last June to question the straw donors. The complaint states that he told one of the donors that he had met with the mayor and that the mayor “believed” the donor would not cooperate with the FBI.
The revelation of Bahi’s intended plea indicates that Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon is continuing to pursue the case against Adams. The New York Times reported last week that Justice Department officials spoke recently with her office, along with Adams’ attorney Alex Spiro, about dismissing the case against him.
It’s not known if Bahi has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, and no date has been set for him to appear in court and enter his plea. But Sassoon filed a letter in the federal case pending against Adams asserting that Bahi “has indicated he intends to plead guilty” to one count of conspiracy to violate the laws of the United States.
If he does agree to assist prosecutors, he would be the second mayoral aide to do so. Rana Abbasova, Adams’ former liaison to the Turkish community, is already cooperating.
The status of a third mayoral aide implicated in the Adams’ campaign fraud allegations, Ahsan Chughtai, is unknown. Chughtai is identified as “Adams Employee 2” in the Southern District of New York indictment against Adams, which claimed Chughtai assisted Bahi in the straw donor scheme. He was questioned by the FBI in June and resigned in October after Bahi was arrested. There’s no public record that Chughtai has been charged with a crime related to the investigation.
The businessman who reimbursed the donors at Bahi’s behest, identified in Adams’ indictment as Businessman #4, has also agreed to cooperate with law enforcement in the hopes of gaining leniency in connection with the investigation.
Bahi’s attorney, Derek Adams, and the mayor’s attorney, Spiro, did not return THE CITY’s calls seeking comment on Friday.
Bahi could be a key witness due to what prosecutors allege was his direct interaction with the mayor about illegal straw donations — contributions that mask the true source of the donation.
In the indictment brought against Adams, prosecutors charge the mayor knowingly solicited and accepted these donations, including some they allege were actually funded by the Turkish government, and then used these donations to try and increase his share of public matching funds.
According to the Adams’ indictment, Bahi — identified as Adams Employee 1 — and Chughtai approached Businessman #6, the owner of a Brooklyn contracting firm, asking him to raise $10,000 for the mayor’s 2021 campaign. At a Dec. 10, 2020 fundraiser attended by Adams, the contractor and four of his employees donated $2,000 each. At Bahi’s suggestion, the contractor illegally reimbursed his employees for their contributions, prosecutors charge.
In June, the FBI served a search warrant on the contractor at his home and interviewed the four employees who fronted the donations. All initially denied wrongdoing, insisting that the donations were all legitimate.
The morning of the search warrant, the contractor notified Bahi of the FBI’s inquisition. Bahi came to the contractor’s office and told him he’d just informed the mayor of the inquiry, and encouraged them to keep lying to the FBI, the indictment charges. Because the donations were reimbursed with cash, Bahi allegedly said “the FBI would be unable to prove that the reimbursements had occurred.”
He then said that he’d just spoken with the mayor and that the mayor “believed” the contractor “would not cooperate with law enforcement,” according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say Bahi had used the encrypted app Signal, including in texting with the mayor. When the FBI executed a search warrant at his home in July, prosecutors say he at first pretended not to be home, then eventually let them in. During that time, prosecutors allege, he deleted the Signal app from his phone.
Direct communications with Adams about the contribution schemes are a key element of the case pending against the mayor, who has insisted he knew nothing about illegal donations from overseas or anywhere else.
As of now, Adams is scheduled to go to trial on April 21 — just a few weeks before the June 24th primary.
Prosecutors recently stated in a court filing that law enforcement had continued to identify more alleged co-conspirators and “additional criminal conduct by Adams.” They have also said they are likely to add more charges against the mayor and possibly add some co-defendants.
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