This story was initially printed by THE CITY. Join to get the newest New York Metropolis information delivered to you every morning.
A former prime Metropolis Corridor advisor and present marketing campaign confidante to Mayor Eric Adams tried to offer cash to a reporter from THE CITY following a marketing campaign occasion in Harlem Wednesday.
The failed payoff — a wad of money in a purple envelope stuffed inside an opened bag of Herr’s Bitter Cream & Onion ripple potato chips — was made by Winnie Greco, a longtime Adams ally who resigned final 12 months from her place because the mayor’s liaison to the Asian neighborhood after she was focused in a number of investigations. She resurfaced just lately as a constant presence in his re-election marketing campaign.
On Wednesday, Metropolis Corridor reporter Katie Honan noticed Greco close to the announcement of the opening of Adams’ latest marketing campaign workplace, in Harlem. Greco later texted Honan after the occasion when she noticed her once more and requested her to satisfy throughout the road from the marketing campaign workplace subsequent to a TD Financial institution.
Greco and Honan walked to the Complete Meals subsequent door. Whereas inside the shop, Greco handed Honan the opened bag of chips with the highest crumpled closed. Honan, considering it was a proposal of a light-weight snack, informed Greco greater than as soon as she couldn’t settle for the chips, however Greco insisted that she maintain them.
The 2 parted methods. Earlier than getting into a close-by subway station, Honan opened the bag and found a purple envelope inside filled with money, at the least one $100 invoice and a number of other $20 payments. The reporter then referred to as Greco and informed her she couldn’t settle for the cash and requested if she was nonetheless close by so she might give it again. Greco mentioned she’d left the realm. Honan informed her she needed to take the cash again, and Greco mentioned they might meet in some unspecified time in the future in Chinatown.
The reporter then texted Greco, “I can’t take this, when can I give it back to you?” She didn’t get a response.
In an interview later Wednesday, THE CITY requested Greco what her intention was in handing cash to the reporter. In response, she mentioned she’d made “a mistake” and apologized again and again.
“I make a mistake,” she mentioned. “I’m so sorry. It’s a culture thing. I don’t know. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry. I feel so bad right now. I’m so sorry honey.”
She then referred to as THE CITY again, advising that we name her lawyer, Steven Brill, and including, “Can we forget about this? I try to be a good person. Please. Please. Please don’t do in the news nothing about me.”
“I just wanted to be her friend,” Greco added. “I just wanted to have one good friend. It’s nothing.”
Brill denied that his consumer’s cost to THE CITY reporter was nefarious in any means.
“I can see how this looks strange,” Brill mentioned. “But I assure you that Winnie’s intent was purely innocent. In the Chinese culture, money is often given to others in a gesture of friendship and gratitude. Winnie is apologetic and embarrassed by any negative impression or confusion this may have caused.”
After THE CITY knowledgeable the Adams marketing campaign concerning the interplay with Greco, marketing campaign spokesperson Todd Shapiro mentioned Greco was instantly suspended from the marketing campaign.
“We are shocked by these reports,” Shapiro mentioned. “Winnie Grecco [sic] holds no position in this campaign and has been suspended from all VOLUNTEER campaign-related activities. Mayor Adams had no prior knowledge of this matter. He has always demanded the highest ethical and legal standards, and his sole focus remains on serving the people of New York City with integrity.”
Following the interplay on the Complete Meals, Honan introduced the chips bag and envelope with a refund to THE CITY’s workplace and handed it over to her editors. THE CITY then contacted town Division of Investigation (DOI). Anticipating doable legislation enforcement investigations, THE CITY didn’t open the envelope or rely the cash inside.
“DOI received allegations from THE CITY and declines further comment,” mentioned Diane Struzzi, DOI spokesperson.
Later Wednesday, federal prosecutors from the workplace of Brooklyn U.S. Legal professional Joseph Nocella contacted THE CITY’s attorneys.
The Brooklyn U.S. lawyer has been investigating Greco since early final 12 months after the FBI raided her houses in February 2024 following THE CITY’s reporting on unlawful straw donations raised at Adams’ marketing campaign fundraisers she’d organized.
The DOI can be wanting into allegations uncovered by THE CITY that pressured a marketing campaign volunteer to do private duties for her in alternate for getting him a metropolis job.
A Lengthy Historical past
Greco has been a fixture of Adams’ political profession for over a decade, throughout which era she helped him increase lots of of hundreds of {dollars} for his mayoral campaigns and linked him to influential members of the Chinese language-American neighborhood whereas escorting him on a number of journeys overseas to China.
She served for a lot of that point as an unpaid, volunteer “ambassador” to Brooklyn Borough Corridor, whereas not taking any official roles for his political campaigns regardless of her prolific fundraising.
As a part of the fundraising, she linked teams of marketing campaign donors to Adams, with some contributors telling THE CITY and Documented in 2023 that they both didn’t give or have been reimbursed by managers. Making donations underneath another person’s title is illegitimate underneath town’s public marketing campaign finance program, which gives $8 for each $1 in small donations from New York Metropolis residents.
Greco additionally helped increase funds for a nonprofit linked to Brooklyn Borough Corridor as a board member of One Brooklyn, which touted Adams’ initiatives and raised his profile forward of his 2021 mayoral run.
Over those self same years, Greco additionally collected donations for a nonprofit group of her personal — with the acknowledged aim of erecting a “friendship archway” in Brooklyn’s Chinatown that will function a gateway for companies and tradition. That enterprise, which relied on an archway being gifted by a district authorities of Beijing, collapsed, leaving some donors with questions about their contributions.
Her first appointment to a paid authorities job got here when Adams turned mayor in January 2022. Inside days of attending his New 12 months’s Eve inauguration on a stage in Instances Sq. with a small circle of shut associates, Greco was named his Asian affairs director at a wage of $100,000, whereas her niece additionally landed a job at Metropolis Corridor, finally turning into one of many mayor’s schedulers.
Greco was so near Adams and his internal circle that his senior advisor, Ingrid-Lewis Martin, was recognized to introduce Greco at occasions as “my sister.” Lewis-Martin is at the moment being prosecuted by Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg for allegedly receiving bribes and is anticipated to be indicted Thursday on influence-peddling costs.
In November 2023, THE CITY reported on two cases the place individuals who interacted with Greco alleged that she had misused her authorities place.
A businessperson informed THE CITY that Greco allegedly demanded $10,000 to her archway nonprofit as the price of entry to a Chinese language-themed occasion with Adams at Gracie mansion, for what was a free occasion.
Moreover, a marketing campaign volunteer claimed that Greco promised to assist him get a metropolis job if he helped oversee reservations to her residence in The Bronx, which he did. After he was employed by the Adams administration, Greco continued to compel him to help her with construction-related duties and different private enterprise whereas on the job, the aide claimed.
In an uncommon association, Greco additionally lived for almost 9 months in a two-room suite at a Queens resort that was underneath metropolis contract to deal with previously incarcerated people.
The mayor’s press workplace and an lawyer for the resort house owners asserted to THE CITY that Greco paid for her resort keep however didn’t present proof.
The town Division of Investigation opened a probe in November 2023 after THE CITY’s reporting. In February 2024, the FBI raided Greco’s Bronx residence and a second home close by she had bought just lately. She then went on medical go away for a number of months and got here again to Metropolis Corridor with a brand new position, and an elevated wage of near $200,000.
