11 months ago
NEW YORK — Turkish real estate executives opened their pocketbooks to help elect Eric Adams as mayor of New York City two years ago. Now, another group of Turkish business people are helping to reelect him.
An extensive POLITICO investigation of campaign finance records uncovered several current and past Adams donors who have strong ties to KSK Construction, a Brooklyn-based general contractor whose offices were raided by the FBI last month amid an ongoing investigation into the mayor’s past campaign. The bureau is examining the campaign’s potential collusion with the Turkish government, according to a search warrant reported on by the New York Times.
Four of the six contributors identified by POLITICO currently or previously worked for companies tied to KSK founder Erden Arkan, a Turkish-born multi-millionaire who co-founded the construction company. Another is a member of Arkan’s family. And through a spokesperson, the sixth donor repeatedly denied to POLITICO contributing at all — a statement that could attract further scrutiny from campaign finance regulators.
The contributions demonstrate deeper connections between Adams’ campaign and the Turkish community than has been reported to date. And they further depict the ongoing relationship between the political operation of the mayor and Turkey, a country he visited at least six times as an adult. News of the investigation into the campaign, which prompted Adams to skip out on a White House meeting last month and fly back to New York, has contributed to his record low poll numbers as he grapples with myriad problems across the city.
No one has been charged in the probe, but agents have taken notably aggressive tactics — raiding the home of Adams’ Turkish liaison and his chief political fundraiser, days before approaching the mayor on the street to seize his phones and iPad.
Adams has vehemently maintained his innocence, while criticizing FBI leaks.
“Where there’s smoke there’s not always fire. Listen, I make sure that we have real compliance. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure that it’s done correctly, and we are going to comply with any (law enforcement) review,” Adams told a local TV station, days after the Nov. 2 FBI raids — a sentiment he repeats whenever asked about this matter. “And if anyone did something that’s inappropriate outside of our compliance procedures, the law enforcement agencies will determine that.”
His campaign’s compliance attorney, Vito Pitta, declined to answer questions about the probe but defended the campaign, saying: “We cannot comment on the details of a federal investigation and an ongoing audit — but we are confident all rules and laws were followed.”
A previously-reported group of donors who listed themselves as KSK employees gave $14,000 to Adams in May of 2021, one month before he won the Democratic nomination for mayor. Federal agents reportedly indicated their interest in KSK on a search warrant to raid the home of Adams’ 25-year-old fundraiser last month.
POLITICO’s new review reveals that the six people connected to KSK donated a combined $10,400 to Adams’ two mayoral campaigns. A portion of the newly-discovered contributions would be eligible for taxpayer-backed matching dollars, as part of the city’s campaign finance system.
The related donors are all connected to Arkan, who founded KSK as an offshoot of Turkey-based Kiska Construction, where he was president of U.S. operations. Arkan currently serves as chief executive of KSK.
“Kiska, KSK, they’re all the same owner, the same company,” said Onat Ersoy, a former KSK employee who gave Adams $1,000 in 2018, making him among the earliest contributors to the mayor’s bid for Gracie Mansion.
In an interview, Ersoy told POLITICO he worked at both Kiska and KSK in 2014 before having a falling out with the companies.
Kagan Gursel, another Kiska executive, gave Adams’ 2021 mayoral run three contributions totaling $900. He occasionally listed himself on campaign forms as the owner of Marmara Hotels, a chain with two locations in New York City and seven in Turkey. Marmara, a subsidiary of Kiska, was involved in a 2008 corruption scheme after a New York City employee’s son stayed there during his honeymoon and wasn’t charged.
Gursel also gave $2,100 to Adams’ 2025 campaign, a donation matched by his 19-year-old daughter, who listed herself as the chief operating officer of Marmara Hotels, according to campaign records.
When asked about the transactions, both the 19-year-old, whose name POLITICO is withholding due to her age, and a spokesperson for Kiska denied that she donated — despite credit card receipts provided by the campaign showing a contribution in her name on June 9, one day after her father gave.
“I was just accompanying someone to the fundraiser and have no involvement with anything,” the 19-year-old told POLITICO in a text message.
Kiska’s spokesperson, Owen Blicksilver, said Gursel shares a credit card with his daughter and paid for both donations himself through the joint account — one in his name and one in hers. Blicksilver added that the 19-year-old only attended an Adams fundraiser six months ago at Zero Bond — a members-only nightclub the mayor frequents — after another attendee canceled. He said she was not involved in making any donations to the campaign.
Because Gursel had already contributed the maximum allowable donation of $2,100, giving Adams another $2,100 by routing it through his daughter’s name could amount to a straw donation. The practice, illegal under the city’s campaign finance laws, is part of the federal probe into whether KSK executives reimbursed employees who gave to Adams’ 2021 election effort, according to a CNN report.
Blicksilver provided POLITICO with a subsequent statement indicating Gursel’s daughter knew about the contribution, but reiterated that she never gave to the campaign.
“With respect to Mr. Gursel’s payment, the tickets were purchased with a credit card account that is in the name of both Kagan and his daughter,” he said. “She was obviously aware of the purchase, and she attended the event. It was a matter of convenience for Kagan to purchase both tickets.”
Two donors who describe themselves as employees of Marmara Hotels, Nur Ercan and Gokhan Cakmak, collectively donated $4,200 to Adams’s 2025 campaign. Ercan, who donated one day prior to Gursel’s daughter, listed herself as the COO of Marmara Hotels, the same job the 19-year-old is listed as having.
Some of the donations in question were given during a June fundraiser at Zero Bond.
Blicksilver said Gursel’s daughter is not an executive at the hotel consortium and that the organizer of the fundraiser mistakenly marked her down as such.
The campaign, however, said that job titles are self reported.
Pitta, Adams’ compliance attorney, said that the campaign is returning the daughter’s contribution. However, he said it would have been nearly impossible for campaign officials to have caught the irregularities given that the daughter attested that the donation was made in her name.
More generally, Blicksilver told POLITICO that the donors affiliated with Marmara Hotels are active on the fundraising circuit.
“While it was a fundraiser for Adams, the motivation for their attending was also the event, the show, the venue — I don’t know Zero Bond, which is supposedly this phenomenal place — and the reception,” Blicksilver said in an interview, later adding, “there was no business discussion of any kind with Mayor Adams.”
Blicksilver also maintained that Kiska and KSK are two separate entities.
Kiska is currently an investor in a KSK development project in Brooklyn, he said. And Arkan has served as a subcontractor on a separate real estate project. But Blicksilver said Arkan cut ties with Kiska in 2007.
One of Arkan’s two daughters, Gunce Arkan, also contributed $100 to Adams’s 2021 campaign at a May 2021 fundraiser hosted by Catherine Giuliani, a Republican who works at government affairs firm RG Group and is married to the cousin of former mayor Rudy Giuliani. The event brought in a total of $13,675, according to campaign finance records.
Gunce Arkan is the former secretary of the Turkish American Business Forum, a nonprofit where her father, Erden Arkan, was also listed as a member. The New York-based group hosts various business and networking events throughout the year for the Turkish-American community — including a 2019 soiree that Adams attended as Brooklyn borough president, according to his schedules from that time, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Arken’s daughter said she donated to Adams’ campaign because his policies aligned with her views, and that her contribution had nothing to do with what she characterized as a brief volunteer role at the Turkish American Business Forum in the early 2000s.
As POLITICO previously reported, Adams attended nearly 80 events with Turkish entities during his time as borough president, the schedules showed.
Erden Arkan declined to comment in a phone call, citing the ongoing federal investigation.
In May of 2021, he hosted a fundraiser for Adams that records show raised $70,000 — including $14,000 from KSK employees. That sum was nearly doubled with the addition of public matching funds, according to a report in THE CITY. The outlet interviewed one donor who said he was reimbursed by a superior at work — potentially an illegal straw donation — and others who said they did not attend the fundraiser at all.
As POLITICO previously reported, employees of KSK did not have a history of giving to political candidates before Adams’ run for mayor.
Adams has expressed appreciation for his Turkish support.
“The Turkish community has really supported and held several fundraisers for me,” Adams told Turk of America magazine in its winter 2018/spring 2019 issue, which featured the mayor on the cover and an extensive interview about the upcoming Democratic primary. “l’m extremely appreciative of the substantial dollar amount they have.”
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