{"id":44132,"date":"2025-11-18T21:43:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/44132\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T21:43:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:43:22","slug":"ex-adams-aide-mohamed-bahi-sentenced-to-3-years-probation-in-straw-donor-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/44132\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Adams aide Mohamed Bahi sentenced to 3 years probation in straw donor scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former City Hall aide Mohamed Bahi<\/a> was sentenced Tuesday to three years\u2019 probation for helping funnel bogus donations into Mayor Adams\u2019 2021 campaign coffers.<\/p>\n

In handing down the sentence, Judge Dale Ho said during a hearing in Manhattan Federal Court that the \u201celephant in the room\u201d was the fact that President Trump\u2019s administration earlier this year tossed Adams\u2019 corruption indictment<\/a>, which charged the mayor with participating in the same straw donor schemes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hard to escape the impression that Mr. Bahi is left here holding the bag,\u201d said Ho, who ordered that Bahi must serve one of the three years of probation in home confinement.<\/p>\n

In August, Bahi pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy<\/a> for helping to organize a fundraiser in December 2020 during which employees of the United Elite Group, a Manhattan real estate firm, contributed $10,000 in bogus donations to Adams\u2019 mayoral campaign.<\/p>\n

\"MohamedMohamed Bahi, right, leaves Manhattan Federal Court Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

At Bahi\u2019s urging, Tolib Mansurov, the firm\u2019s CEO, reimbursed the employees for the donations in violation of federal and local laws, unlocking tens of thousands more dollars in illicit public matching funds for the soon-to-be mayor\u2019s campaign, according to court records and prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Mansurov, a prominent member of the city\u2019s Uzbek community with major real estate-related business interests, was told he could get \u201cinfluence\u201d with Adams\u2019 incoming administration in exchange for bundling the illegal donations, according to prosecutors. Mansurov was never criminally charged.<\/p>\n

In an ironic twist, Adams \u2014 who critics have accused of being beholden\u00a0to Trump<\/a> since the Department of Justice quashed the mayor\u2019s corruption indictment this past spring \u2014 was traveling to Uzbekistan on Tuesday for a taxpayer-funded trip to meet with officials from that country\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

Walking out of court after his sentencing, Bahi was told by a reporter that the mayor was en route to Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh really? Wow, breaking news. That\u2019s interesting, as long as we don\u2019t pay the tab,\u201d he replied, a reference to taxpayer dollars being used for the Uzbekistan jaunt.<\/p>\n

When informed the mayor is, in fact, getting the trip covered with city dollars, Bahi said: \u201cIt is what it is. I\u2019m content. I\u2019m happy this is over, it\u2019s crazy. \u2026 I hope this makes me a better person moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MohamedMohamed Bahi, right, leaves Manhattan Federal Court Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Spokesmen for the mayor didn\u2019t immediately return requests for comment on Bahi\u2019s sentencing.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. attorney\u2019s office had asked Ho to send Bahi to prison for at least six months.<\/p>\n

The judge, who also oversaw Adams\u2019 case, dismissed that request, in part, by referencing the fact that the mayor got off scot-free after the Trump administration stepped in to undo his prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat am I to make of a person above him, the mayor, had his indictment against him dismissed?\u201d Ho said.<\/p>\n

In dropping the mayor\u2019s prosecution, the Trump administration did not say it was doing so based on the merits of the case. Rather, a Trump appointee wrote in court papers the administration needed the case gone in order for Adams to better assist in the president \u201cmass deportation\u201d agenda<\/a> \u2014 a caveat that prompted a number of career prosecutors who worked on the case to resign in protest.<\/p>\n

\"MohamedMohamed Bahi, right, leaves Manhattan Federal Court Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Adams\u2019 trip to Uzbekistan comes as he prepares to leave office Jan. 1, having in late September abandoned his bid to get reelected as he faced record low approval ratings.<\/p>\n

The trip, which follows Adams\u2019 visit to Israel over the weekend, comes as he has said he\u2019s working on lining up a post-City Hall job that involves an international component.<\/p>\n

Adams, the first mayor in modern New York history to face criminal indictment, maintained he never did anything wrong and had pleaded not guilty to all charges against him before the Trump administration stepped in and threw out his case.<\/p>\n

Bahi, who was Adams\u2019 Muslim community liaison at City Hall, is the first member of the mayor\u2019s administration to be criminally convicted as part of the corruption scandal that rocked the mayor\u2019s first term. Erden Arkan, a Turkish businessman, was also sentenced to probation<\/a> this year for helping orchestrate a separate straw donor scheme benefiting Adams\u2019 2021 campaign.<\/p>\n

Adams\u2019 indictment<\/a> alleged the Arkan and Bahi straw donation schemes were part of a wider conspiracy the mayor engaged in to secure bribes and illegal campaign contributions, mostly from Turkish government operatives, in exchange for political favors.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Eric Adams arrives for his arraignment outside Manhattan Federal Court Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

One of the most specific allegations in Adams\u2019 indictment was that he in late 2021, shortly before being sworn in as mayor, pressured the FDNY to drop fire safety violations at the Turkish Consulate in Manhattan so the building could open in time for a visit by the country\u2019s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.<\/p>\n

When it came to Mansurov, the mayor\u2019s indictment alleged he kept in touch with him after taking office, including in February 2023, when the real estate executive allegedly sought Adams\u2019 help to resolve a stop-work order at a luxury condo project. Just over a week later, the stop-work order was lifted, the indictment charges.<\/p>\n

The case against Adams alleged that Bahi informed the mayor when Mansurov was served a subpoena from the feds seeking records related to his donations. The feds, in charging Bahi, alleged he told Mansurov that Adams \u201cbelieved\u201d Mansurov would not cooperate with the feds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former City Hall aide Mohamed Bahi was sentenced Tuesday to three years\u2019 probation for helping funnel bogus donations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[25382,302,7022,81,75,84,83,25381,9,24,63,25383],"class_list":["post-44132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-adams-administration","tag-city-hall","tag-corruption","tag-eric-adams","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-mohamed-bahi","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-tolib-mansurov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}