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Prosecutors dropped charges on Tuesday against one of the six people indicted last year for orchestrating an illegal donation scheme to Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign in hopes of winning favors from his administration.
Ronald Peek, 66, had been accused of helping the other defendants make “straw donations” to the Adams campaign by falsifying contributions, and directing two businessmen to funnel donations through their construction company.
But a prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Tuesday that Peek had no criminal record and has a history of government service, and that Peek did not profit from the scheme, the Daily News reported. Four of the other defendants have pleaded guilty to a range of charges, while another defendant is still fighting the charges against her.
“My client is looking forward to moving on now that he has been able to clear his name,” said Ian Miles, Peek’s attorney, in a statement. “We thank the court as well as the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for its thorough investigation that led to this dismissal.”
Peek formerly worked for multiple Florida governors and for Gov. Mario Cuomo, according to Peek’s spokesman Richard Bamberger.
Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg announced the indictments last July. Neither Mayor Eric Adams nor his campaign have been accused of any wrongdoing, although the case verged uncomfortably close to the mayor’s personal circle — one of the people charged, retired police inspector Dwayne Montgomery, knows the mayor personally and had spoken to him since he became mayor.
Montgomery and two of the other defendants have since been sentenced for misdemeanor conspiracy charges, while another participant, Shamsuddin Riza, pleaded guilty in April to a more serious felony charge of falsifying business records, as well as third-degree attempted grand larceny.
The last remaining defendant, Millicent Redick, is still maintaining her innocence and told the Daily News this week that she only got swept up in the donation effort as part of a desperate attempt to secure repairs for her deteriorating Harlem apartment complex. Redick has declined a misdemeanor plea deal, the Daily News reported.
Prosecutors said last year that the defendants took advantage of the city’s matching funds program, which pairs every $250 campaign donation from a New York City resident with $2,000 in public funds. They tried to boost Adams’ campaign “as leverage in potential future requests of the mayor’s office,” Bragg said in July.
City law limits individual contributions to $2,000, or a stricter $400 for people who own a business that vies for city contracts. The indictment alleged that the defendants recruited donors and falsely listed contributions in their names to go well beyond those limits.
This particular straw-donor case was eclipsed within months by revelations that federal authorities had opened a probe into the Adams campaign for possible illicit dealings with the government of Turkey. Agents from a different U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn are also reportedly investigating one of Adams’ aides, Winnie Greco, whose home was searched by the FBI in February.
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Nick Garber , 2024-06-18 22:53:14
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