Adams Aide Targeted in FBI Raids Won Raises That Almost Doubled Her Salary to $196,000

Key mayoral aide Winnie Greco, who returned to work last week after going on leave following FBI raids of her homes in February, has nearly doubled her salary since Mayor Eric Adams hired her in January 2022, city payroll records show.

Greco, who volunteered for eight years while Adams served as Brooklyn borough president and served as a prolific campaign fundraiser for him over the past decade, was brought on as Adams’ director of Asian affairs and senior advisor at an annual salary of $100,000 two years ago.

While not naming her, city payroll files record an 85% pay bump last summer for the only senior policy advisor at that salary, boosting her compensation  to $185,000.

This month, another raise boosted her salary again to $196,267, the records show.

A mayoral spokesperson at first did not respond multiple times when asked to confirm Greco’s salary but, when presented with the payroll records, the spokesperson confirmed the hike, noting that the summer raise was prior to any known investigations of Greco.

The more recent raise was part of a pattern for non-union employees that conforms to an agreement reached last year with the municipal workers union, District Council 37, the spokesperson said. The deal also led to a hike for Greco’s fellow senior policy advisor, Adams’ close aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin, from about $252,000 to more than $267,000.

As THE CITY previously reported, Greco’s niece, Wai Ying Cheng, was hired at the same time as Greco and assigned to the mayor’s office at a salary of $80,000.

About a month before Greco’s major pay hike, Cheng, a recent college graduate, got a $40,000 raise when she became a mayoral scheduler.

A message left on a cell phone listed for Greco wasn’t immediately returned.

Swirling Investigations

In late February, the FBI raided two homes that Greco owns in The Bronx. While the focus of the probe, led by the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office, hasn’t been made public, the raids also targeted a mall in Flushing, Queens, where Greco held numerous fundraisers for Adams and where THE CITY had previously identified potential illegal “straw” donations, in which donors are repaid by others for their contributions.

In November, THE CITY reported that a businessperson alleged that Greco, while serving as a senior policy advisor, had solicited a $10,000 donation to a nonprofit she had founded as a condition for entrance to an event at Gracie Mansion with the mayor.

A former Adams campaign volunteer also alleged that Greco required him to oversee renovation work at her Bronx home — for two months, unpaid — as a condition for landing a government job. While in his job, the worker said Greco regularly pulled him away from his duties to help her answer her email and asked him to continue to work on the renovation on city time.

Two weeks later, the city’s Department of Investigation confirmed that it had opened a probe of Greco.

On Wednesday, THE CITY reported that Greco had returned to work after she went on medical leave following the raid of her homes — although the nature of her position isn’t fully clear.

The mayoral spokesperson said Greco is working under the direct supervision of the commissioner of the Community Affairs Unit, but wouldn’t reveal whether her title or duties had changed.

On Thursday, following a press conference with Gov. Kathy Hochul, Adams didn’t respond to multiple questions about Greco’s return to city government — as he prepared for a trip to Rome later that evening during which he plans to meet with Pope Francis.

“I’m going to see the Holy Father, I am going to pray for the entire media that follows me,” he told reporters as he avoided questions on Greco. “I’m going to ask him to lift you up in prayer and to keep you as much as possible.”

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