Erden Arkan pleads guilty to helping set up illegal contributions for Eric Adams' campaign

The head of a Brooklyn construction company admitted Friday to working with the Turkish government to set up straw donors for New York City Mayor Eric Adams's 2021 election campaign, knowing the money would be used to defraud the city campaign finance system.

Erden Arkan, 76, the head of KSK Construction Group, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court in Manhattan.

Federal prosecutors said that Arkan, who is Turkish, worked with a Turkish diplomatic official to game New York City’s matching public funds system, which can pay political candidates as much as $8 for every dollar donated.

Adams received more than $10 million in city money for his 2021 mayoral campaign, according to a federal indictment against the mayor.

Adams pleaded not guilty in September in Manhattan federal court to wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bribery and soliciting campaign donations from a foreign national.

In addition to defrauding the city’s campaign finance system, prosecutors charge that the mayor accepted lavish gifts of airfare upgrades, hotel stays and meals in foreign restaurants from the Turkish government and Turkish business owners, and in exchange Adams greased the wheels of city government.

Adams allegedly pressed the FDNY commissioner to push fire safety inspectors to approve the opening of the newly built Turkish consulate ahead of a visit from the Turkish president, prosecutors said.

Arkan said that he wrote checks to employees of KSK, which builds luxury apartment buildings, using company money for them to then donate to the Adams campaign.

"When I wrote the checks, I knew the Adams campaign would use the checks to apply for public matching funds," the businessman told the judge Friday.

Arkan, who is identified as "Businessman-5" in the Adams indictment, tried to get others to donate as well, writing this "may feel like swimming against the current but unfortunately this is how things work in this country."

As part of his plea deal, the businessman will have to pay $18,000 in restitution. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August. It is unclear if he will testify against the mayor in his upcoming April criminal trial.

Neither Arkan, nor his lawyer, Jonathan Rosen, of Washington, D.C., would comment after the hearing.

Adams’ defense lawyer Alex Spiro said previously that the guilty plea would not affect the mayor’s case.

The Adams administration has been awash with corruption allegations. His top adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, was indicted last month in state court for accepting money and gifts for her son from hotel developers in exchange for favorable treatment by city bureaucracy. She has denied any wrongdoing.

On Friday in Manhattan federal court, former FDNY chief Anthony Saccavino, of the fire prevention bureau, appeared to be heading for a plea deal on charges that he and a colleague, former FDNY chief Brian Cordasco, fast-tracked building inspections in exchange for money.

Prosecutors said at a Friday hearing that an unspecified deal has been offered to Saccavino, but he has not accepted. Cordasco has already pleaded guilty.