Erden Arkan, who was identified in Mayor Adams’ corruption indictment as playing a central role in funneling thousands of dollars in illegal straw donations to Adams’ 2021 campaign on behalf of the Turkish government, has indicated he will plead guilty, prosecutors said in a new court filing on Monday.
Arkan, identified in the Adams’ indictment as “Businessman-5,” plans to plead to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in funneling thousands of dollars in illegal straw donations to Adams’ 2021 campaign on behalf of the Turkish government.
His is expected to be the first guilty plea to come out of the Turkey-Adams investigation.
“In connection with this case, Arkan has indicated that he wishes to plead guilty to the above-captioned Information,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Kim wrote in the Monday afternoon filing.
Court documents don’t say whether Arkan’s guilty plea will require him to cooperate in the feds’ ongoing corruption investigation into Adams. It is, however, not unusual fort federal defendants who plead guilty in ongoing criminal cases agree to testify or cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for leniency at sentencing.
Adams was indicted in September for soliciting and accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions in exchange for carrying out political favors, mostly for associates of the Turkish government. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
The mayor’s trial is scheduled for April — shortly before the June primary in his reelection campaign.
Alex Spiro, Adams’ attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Adams’ indictment, Arkan, the owner of KSK Construction, held a fundraiser at the firm’s Brooklyn office on May 7, 2021. Arkan and 11 employees of his KSK firm gave Adams’ campaign a total of $13,950 on that day, city records show. After submitting those contributions for public matching funds, the Adams campaign raked in an additional $22,000 in taxpayers’ cash off of them, records show.
All of those donations were illegal straw contributions funded by Arkan and made “at the behest of” Reyhan Ozgur, Turkey’s consul general in New York, according to the indictment. Ozgur and Arkan allegedly agreed to make the illegal donations to Adams’ campaign during a dinner with the soon-to-be mayor in April 2021.
“We are supporting you,” Ozgur told Adams at that dinner, according to court papers.
Before the fundraiser, Arkan tried to recruit others in the construction industry and the Turkish community to give money to Adams.
This “may feel like swimming against the current but unfortunately this is how things work in this country,” Arkan wrote in a message to potential contributors, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said in November that former Adams aide Mohamed Bahi, is also weighing a plea deal in a separate case, where he is charged with obstructing the corruption investigation that led to the mayor’s indictment.
Vito Pitta, Adams’ campaign attorney, did not immediately return a request for comment on whether the mayor will return the KSK contributions in light of the guilty plea.
Arkan didn’t immediately return calls and emails. A receptionist who picked up the phone at KSK’s Brooklyn office on Monday afternoon told the Daily News that Arkan “isn’t currently here at the moment.”
“He’s out of the office for the holidays,” the receptionist said.
With Molly Crane-Newman
