Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the brash consigliere of embattled Mayor Eric Adams, was accused Thursday of buying and selling favors for 2 New York Metropolis hoteliers in change for bribes — together with a $100,000 mortgage for her DJ son to purchase a Porsche.
The extremely anticipated indictment in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom ranges bribery costs towards Lewis-Martin, her son Glenn Martin II, hotelier Mayank Dwivedi and actual property investor Raizada Vaid.
“We allege that Ingrid Lewis-Martin engaged in a long-running bribery, cash laundering, and conspiracy scheme by utilizing her place and authority because the Chief Advisor to the Mayor of the Metropolis of New York to illegally affect Division of Buildings and different metropolis choices in change for greater than $100,000 in money and advantages for herself and her son, Glenn Martin II,” Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg mentioned in an announcement.
Lewis-Martin, 63, allegedly expedited allow hold-ups with the Glass Ceiling, a rooftop bar close to Herald Sq., and the Decrease East Facet’s Resort on Rivington, court docket paperwork state.
Dwivedi and Vaid then gave her son, who goes by the identify DJ Suave Luciano, two $50,000 checks, court docket paperwork state.
The DJ deposited the money in an account shared along with his public servant mom, after which transferred $50,000 to his enterprise, Suave Productions, earlier than utilizing it to concern a $113,000 cashier’s verify to purchase a Porsche, prosecutors allege.
Lewis-Martin additionally allegedly tried to cowl up the conspiracy by telling the group to make use of Sign, a third-party encrypted messaging app, and use coded language, prosecutors mentioned.
She surrendered to authorities early Thursday, arriving at Manhattan Prison Courtroom sporting a leopard-print prime and daring crimson lipstick.
She and her son, who arrived at court docket together with her, are anticipated to be arraigned Thursday afternoon following a press convention held by Bragg and metropolis Division of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Stauber.
Manhattan prosecutors and DOI investigators collectively ran the probe into Lewis-Martin, who’s a longtime confidante of Adams — and is now the highest-profile metropolis official to face costs because the mayor himself was indicted on federal corruption costs in late September.
Lewis-Martin’s anticipation of legal costs led to her sudden resignation over the weekend, officers mentioned — in addition to a defiant, preemptive Monday information convention together with her lawyer Arthur Aidala.
The pair lambasted Bragg’s workplace for allegedly conducting a political prosecution.
“I’m right here falsely accused of one thing,” Lewis-Martin mentioned. “I don’t know precisely what it’s, however I do know that I used to be instructed that it’s one thing that’s unlawful, and I’ve by no means performed something unlawful in my capability in authorities.”
The indictment provides to Adams’ authorized issues as a number of legal investigations shut in on his inside circle, with the mayor going through unprecedented federal bribery and corruption costs by Manhattan federal prosecutors.
Lewis-Martin had prevented the embarrassing federal raids and subpoenas that befell a lot of her colleagues — that’s, till she returned from a trip to Japan in late September.
State and federal authorities have been ready for Lewis-Martin when her aircraft landed at JFK Airport, with the DA investigators taking her cellphone and feds slapping her with a subpoena for testimony in Adams’ corruption case.
The DA’s probe centered on Metropolis Corridor’s leasing of economic properties, the New York Occasions first reported. These investigators additionally seized the telephones of 4 others, together with prime metropolis actual property official Jesse Hamilton and Diana Boutross, a personal dealer concerned in metropolis leases, sources instructed The Submit.
After the airport shock, Lewis-Martin made the gorgeous, if characteristically combative, step of showing on Aidala’s radio present to defend herself.
“We’re imperfect, however we’re not thieves, and I do imagine that in the long run, that the New York Metropolis public will see that now we have not performed something unlawful to the magnitude or scale that requires the federal authorities and the DA workplace to research us,” she mentioned.
Lewis-Martin has served as Adams’ prime adviser in Metropolis Corridor, and he or she as soon as described herself as his closest ally and — as she as soon as instructed the New York Occasions — the mayor’s “sister ordained by God.”
However the pair’s decades-long relationship has grow to be strained in latest months, as sources instructed The Submit the once-inseparable duo have barely spoken.
Lewis-Martin abruptly resigned from Metropolis Corridor on Sunday, a few month earlier than she was scheduled to stop.
The bribery costs additionally put a highlight on her son, DJ Suave Luciano.
Past brunch gigs and releasing booty-bumping music movies to his 79 YouTube subscribers, DJ Suave Luciano has carried out at Rise Up NYC concert events and different metropolis gigs.
Lewis-Martin launched her son throughout a June reception celebrating Caribbean American heritage by cracking a joke that the DJ was working the city-run occasion totally free.
“He at all times volunteers,” she mentioned. “They attempt to write us up within the papers, however he doesn’t take any cash. He’s a volunteer. Simply saying that.”
The indictment additionally proved embarrassing for Dwivedi’s picture as a hotelier catering to the wealthy.
Dwivedi’s portfolio consists of the Maidstone lodge and the Capri Southampton, two luxurious Hamptons lodges.
He manages the Capri on behalf of movie star lawyer Mark Geragos, whose daughter Teny Geragos is Dwivedi’s lawyer.
She instructed The Submit Wednesday evening that Bragg “has an incomplete and inaccurate view of the info.”
“We sit up for setting the report straight and proving Mr. Dwivedi’s full innocence,” she mentioned.
Further reporting by Ronny Reyes
