Fraudsters

Eric Adams – Part 2: Sour Cream & Onion Flavored CorruptionIn Part 2 of our Eric Adams deep-dive – Seena, Ariel, and Justin continue exploring how the former mayor (and current Albanian citizen) left the city with a $12 billion budget shortfall, led his entire team to federal indictments, and temporarily ended all racism with his cryptocurrency. 00:02:30 — The episode properly begins. Seena sets up Part 2 as covering the ramifications of the Turkish pivot, additional scam highlights, and the moment the feds come knocking. 00:05:00 — Ariel takes the audience through Adams' relationship with the truth via a catalog of minor biographical lies: the fake gun story blamed on a nonexistent co-author, the skateboarding claim that required his office to officially define a plywood board with metal wheels as a skateboard, the New Jersey residency mystery resolved by a press tour of an apartment he may or may not have lived in. 00:07:30 — The FBI raids begin. Search warrants hit his fundraiser and staffers. Agents seize his phones. The personal phone is not on him. He produces it the next day claiming he changed the password to preserve evidence and then forgot the new password. 00:09:00 — The Red Wedding. In a single week in September 2024, federal agents seize phones from the police commissioner, the first deputy mayor, the school chancellor, the deputy mayor for public safety, a senior advisor, and the chancellor's partner. Resignations follow like dominoes through October. 00:11:20 — The indictment. Five federal counts. Adams becomes the first sitting New York City mayor charged with a federal crime. He pleads not guilty and calls it politically motivated. 00:13:50 — The Trump pivot and the DOJ dismissal. Adams cozies up to Trump, cancels MLK Day events to attend the inauguration, and the Justice Department drops his case — explicitly, in writing, not based on the evidence but to preserve his ability to support the president's immigration agenda. The Klobuchar-Bove hearing plays out live. Danielle Sassoon, Trump appointee and Scalia clerk, refuses to drop the case and resigns. Six other prosecutors follow. 00:30:20 — The chip bribe. Winnie Greco hands a city reporter a bag of Herr's sour cream and onion chips at a Whole Foods. Inside: $300 in cash. Greco's lawyer calls it a Chinese cultural gesture of friendship. It is not. 00:36:10 — The NYC Token. Adams launches a cryptocurrency post-mayoralty at a Times Square press conference, claims it will fight antisemitism, calls blockchain technology block change technology twice on Fox News, watches it hit a $600 million market cap, then watches it crash 80% when a wallet linked to the deployer withdraws $2.5 million in liquidity. Classic rug pull. Frank Carone is involved. Patreon: https://patreon.com/Fraudsters Follow The Show: Twitter: https://twitter.com/fraudstersLPN Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fraudsterslpn/ Website: https://fraudsters.fm/ Follow the Hosts: Seena: https://twitter.com/seenanow Justin: https://www.instagram.com/justin_williams_comedy Ariel: https://twitter.com/arielleaty YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fraudsterslpn Music Credit and Sound FX: https://twitter.com/gograntgordon Season Cover Art by: Cierra Monico Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Fraudsters ad-free. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Eric Adams – Part 1: For Turkey with LoveIn the first deep-dive of Season 6 – Seena, Ariel, and Justin discuss former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and his tenuous relationship with the truth. In Part One, we track his rise from a skateboarding (?), rat-owning (?) youth through his time in the NYPD, NY State Senate, and eventually all the way to City Hall where he proudly served the citizens of NYC (and Turkey). 00:04:20 — Eric Adams' origin story begins. Brownsville, Brooklyn, 1960. The absent father, the alcoholic butcher, the bag of clothes carried to school in case of eviction. The nail-studded bat. 00:07:10 — The Mickey incident. Adams and his brother rob a woman named Mickey, a dancer and part-time sex worker whose errands he'd been running. Later he claims he had a pet rat named Mickey. The hosts correctly identify this as a deliberate rewrite of his own biography. 00:09:00 — The precinct basement. Two white cops beat Adams and his brother on the groin and testicles specifically so the bruises won't show. A Black cop ends it. Adams sees the Black cop's power and wants it. This is his actual origin story. 00:22:40 — The One Brooklyn Fund. Adams creates a nonprofit as Borough President that functions as a shadow political operation — taking unlimited, undisclosed donations, routing Borough Hall rental fees into a private account, and using award galas where 70% of proceeds paid for the gala itself to build his future mayoral coalition. 00:34:30 — The Turkish connection begins. Two trips to Turkey arranged by a man whose explicit business was connecting Turkish corporations to influential politicians. Free business class tickets. The Cosmopolitan Suite at the St. Regis at a nearly 92% discount. An email claiming $10,000 in cash was left in a desk drawer. The cash did not exist. 00:39:50 — The straw donor scheme. Unable to take foreign campaign contributions legally, Adams is explicitly told by a Turkish entrepreneur that the donations will be funneled through American citizens. He says proceed. His staffers coordinate fake paper trails. Ten construction workers each donate $1,250, are secretly reimbursed, and the illegal donations unlock New York City's 8-to-1 public matching funds. 00:44:10 — The fire code favor. Turkey's $300 million Turkish House skyscraper needs to pass fire inspection for Erdogan's ribbon-cutting. It has significant fire code violations. Adams pressures the FDNY to approve it anyway. He texts about it. He does not delete the text. Ozgur tells him he is a true friend of Turkey. Adams responds: you are my brother. Patreon: https://patreon.com/Fraudsters Follow The Show: Twitter: https://twitter.com/fraudstersLPN Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fraudsterslpn/ Website: https://fraudsters.fm/ Follow the Hosts: Seena: https://twitter.com/seenanow Justin: https://www.instagram.com/justin_williams_comedy Ariel: https://twitter.com/arielleaty YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fraudsterslpn Music Credit and Sound FX: https://twitter.com/gograntgordon Season Cover Art by: Cierra Monico Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Fraudsters ad-free. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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