NYC mayoral aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin to be arraigned Thursday on bribery charges reportedly tied to $100,000 Porsche loan

Josephine Stratman and Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Dec 18, 2024

Published in News & Features

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NEW YORK — Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who resigned abruptly as Mayor Eric Adams’ chief adviser last weekend, is expected to face criminal charges alleging she used her government influence to help two businessmen who in turn gave her son a loan for a luxury car, according to sources familiar with the matter and published reports.

Lewis-Martin, Adams’ longest-serving and most trusted political confidant, will be arraigned on the bribery charges in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, sources told the New York Daily News. According to The New York Times, Lewis-Martin will be charged together with her adult son, Glen Martin II, New York hotelier Mayank Dwivedi and one of Dwivedi’s business partners.

The charges, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, will reportedly allege that Lewis-Martin helped Dwivedi and his partner with resolving a city Department of Buildings issue that was holding up a construction project related to a hotel they own.

Once she cleared up the Buildings issue, the two businessmen provided Martin II with a $100,000 loan to buy a Porsche, sources told the N.Y. Times.

The DA’s office declined to comment. Lewis-Martin and her son did not return calls and messages Wednesday, and neither did Dwivedi.

Earlier Wednesday, Arthur Aidala, Lewis-Martin’s lawyer, said he had not been informed of the specifics of the charges, but that he was confident they wouldn’t be a big deal.

“It’s going to be right up there with getting upgraded flight tickets,” Aidala told the Daily News, referring to the mayor’s federal indictment, which alleges he took bribes in the form of luxury airfare as well as illegal campaign contributions, mostly from Turkish government operatives, in exchange for doing political favors. The mayor has pleaded not guilty.

Martin II is a professional DJ and has played multiple gigs at Gracie Mansion, including as recently as September at a fashion event. Like his mother, Martin II has a close relationship with the mayor. He refers to Adams as his “uncle” and has posted photos and videos of himself appearing with the mayor in various settings, including jet-skiing in the East River in July 2022, according to a review of his social media accounts.

Martin II has also posted a variety of photos on his Instagram account of himself riding in and posing alongside luxury cars such as Maseratis, Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces.

“Being defeated is optional,” Martin II captioned a photo he posted on Instagram in December 2022 of himself praying in front of a blue Maserati.

On Tuesday, Aidala — while stressing he didn’t have first-hand details — said on the “Sid & Friends in the Morning” radio show he thinks DA prosecutors may charge Lewis-Martin with making “a phone call” to the Department of Buildings on behalf of businessmen who then let her son “be a DJ” or gave him “some job like that.”

“She picked up the phone, called a deputy commissioner of the DOB and said, could you go and reinspect this thing, because they’re saying they did it right, you’re saying they did it wrong,” he said, not naming the official or who requested she make the call.

Aidala wouldn’t name the DOB official in question when asked Wednesday by the Daily News.

Dwivedi, the hotelier the N.Y. Times said is expected to be charged alongside Lewis-Martin and her son, lives in Manhattan and operates multiple properties in the city and the Hamptons.

The Manhattan DA’s office has been presenting evidence about Lewis-Martin to a grand jury at least since earlier this week and it first emerged Sunday that she was expected to be indicted.

In a press conference with Aidala on Monday, Lewis-Martin — who resigned as the mayor’s top adviser at City Hall just before news broke she was expected to face indictment — denied to reporters that she has broken the law.

“I am here falsely accused of something; I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know that I was told that it’s something that’s illegal, and I have never done anything illegal in my capacity in government,” she told reporters.

The Manhattan DA’s office has been investigating Lewis-Martin at least since September, when DA investigators raided her Brooklyn home and seized her cellphone at John F. Kennedy Airport immediately after she arrived on a flight from Japan. Feds with the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office also met Lewis-Martin at the airport and subpoenaed her to testify in the Turkey-related investigation into Adams.

When she got off the flight from Japan, DA investigators also seized phones from multiple of her travel companions, including Jesse Hamilton, a top real estate official in Adams’ administration.

According to sources, the DA investigation focused on Hamilton and Lewis-Martin has also been looking into possible bribery related to the city government’s commercial leasing operations. Hamilton hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing publicly, and it’s unclear if the DA will bring any charges related to the real estate matters.

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(Daily News staff writer Molly Crane-Newman contributed to this story.)