New York City Mayor Eric Adams has become mired in scandal… and even the FBI can’t ignore it.
On Thursday, the FBI raided two Bronx properties owned by top mayoral adviser Winnie Greco, rumored to have once worked as a consultant for organizations backed by the Chinese Communist Party.
Take a look —
🚨🇺🇸 BREAKING: FBI RAID HOME OF NYC MAYOR’S AIDE
The claim is that Winnie Greco misused her position by offering a campaign worker a job in return for renovating her kitchen. pic.twitter.com/4IAxyu0xmn
— Kacee Allen 🇺🇸 (@KaceeRAllen) February 29, 2024
Here’s a picture of Winnie Greco, senior advisor to NYC mayor Eric Adams, at the Lunar New Year parade on Sunday (she’s on the right, wearing red).
Strangely, she was on a float in the middle of the parade, rather than at the front marching with Adams; she was absent from the… pic.twitter.com/AiUknNfWSq
— Jimmy Quinn (@james_t_quinn) February 29, 2024
For more than a decade, Greco has worked as a fundraiser for Adams, and she now serves as his director of Asian affairs. She was appointed immediately after Adams’ inauguration as mayor.
Greco reportedly worked in food exports before her political career, and she consulted for two communist party-backed organizations during that time, according to a September revelation from the New York Post.
The NY Post reported —
Winnie Greco, 61, is a special advisor to the Mayor and his director of Asian affairs, earning a $100,000 salary from the city last year…
But she has also been named as a “consultant” by at least two CCP-linked organizations — the Dong Guan Association of America and the Fujian Daily Southeast Network. And her company took money from the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
It is unclear if Greco was paid for her alleged consulting work.
City Hall has disputed the reports about Greco’s career as a consultant, calling them “unfounded.”
“She is not a consultant for anything – or anyone – and only serves this administration and the 8.3 million New Yorkers who call this city home,” City Hall told the NY Post in a statement.
Officials claimed that Greco had only paid a CCP-linked group to edit its website. “Any insinuation otherwise is nothing short of fear-mongering,” City Hall said.
Following Thursday’s FBI raid, Greco was placed on administrative leave, according to a City Hall spokesperson. It remains unclear whether Greco is still collecting her hefty salary.
In November, the city’s Department of Investigation opened a probe into her conduct following questions about her political fundraising and whether she used her position for illegal personal gain.
According to that report, published by the local news outlet The City, Greco demanded that a city employee complete free renovations on her home when he was supposed to be working.
Neighbors reported a 6 a.m. raid that lasted for several hours in Greco’s two homes on the same block.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn oversaw Thursday’s raid, according to one insider’s remarks to the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in Manhattan have opened a separate inquiry, and they even seized Adams’ phones last year.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed Thursday’s raid, while declining to specify its purpose.
Greco is at least the third aide to Adams in recent months to have her home raided by federal agents.
In November, the FBI raided the home of Brianna Suggs, a top fundraiser for Adams, and Rana Abbasova, who worked in the mayor’s international affairs office. The agents seized Adams’ phones only four days later.
Adams has repeatedly deflected questions about the Manhattan investigation while stressing that he has not officially been accused of wrongdoing.
“Our administration will always follow the law, and we always expect all our employees to adhere to the strictest ethical guidelines,” a spokesperson for the mayor said in a statement Thursday. “As we have repeatedly said, we don’t comment on matters that are under review, but will fully cooperate with any review underway.”
Manhattan prosecutors are believed to be focusing on allegations of the Adams campaign conspiring with the Turkish government to receive illegal campaign contributions from foreign sources, funneled through straw donors, according to a warrant reported on by The New York Times.
Now, law enforcement is finally taking action against Adams’ scandal-prone administration.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.