Feds Charge Mayoral Aide Mohamed Bahi with Interfering in Probe of Adams Straw Donor Scheme

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Federal prosecutors charged an aide to Mayor Eric Adams with witness tampering and destruction of evidence in connection with the federal corruption case against Adams, in a complaint unsealed by a Manhattan judge Tuesday.

Mohamed Bahi, 41, senior liaison to the city’s Muslim community in the mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, is the first person after the mayor to face federal charges amid sprawling probes into the Adams campaign, administration and top officials.

Last month, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams charged Adams with soliciting and accepting illegal pass-through donations for his 2021 election in exchange for favors. Adams solicited and received some of those donations, according to the criminal indictment , from a businessman in the construction industry.

In the complaint unsealed Tuesday, an FBI agent describes actions he claims Bahi took to help facilitate that scheme, in which the businessman funneled funds in late 2020 through four employees who served as phony “straw” donors — which enabled the campaign to claim funds from the city’s public campaign matching funds program.

After the bureau executed a search warrant on the businessman in mid-June of this year, the agent alleges, Bahi took measures to try to ensure that the businessman and donors would not cooperate with the investigation — and told them he had just spoken with Adams, who is referenced as “Official-1.”

During a meeting in mid-June 2024, according to the complaint from an FBI agent, Bahi questioned the businessman and employees about their interactions with the bureau, photographed the grand jury subpoenas, and told the employees that the FBI would not be able to prove they’d been reimbursed in cash.

In a subsequent meeting with the businessman, the complaint alleges, Bahi said he had met with Adams, and that Adams “believed that the Businessman would not cooperate with law enforcement.”

At times, Adams and Bahi used the encrypted app Signal to communicate, according to the complaint, which alleges that during a July search of Bahi’s Staten Island home, Bahi deleted Signal from his phone before surrendering it to investigators.

Bahi resigned Monday from his city position, which paid $80,000 last year according to city records. He was arrested on Tuesday morning and appeared before United States Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger in Manhattan federal court that afternoon.

He was released after the appearance after he agreed to surrender his travel documents, not to leave New York and New Jersey, and not to communicate with any other potential co-conspirators or witnesses to the case. His lawyer, Kevin Puvalowski, declined to comment on whether Bahi planned to cooperate with federal prosecutors or on his sudden resignation from the Adams administration as the two strode out of federal court.

In a Facebook post Monday, Bahi had posted a picture of himself and a in front of a field of sunflowers with a young girl, seeming to allude to his dramatic change in circumstances. “Even when it feels the entire world is against you….the love a child can give you is priceless,” he wrote.

Alex Spiro, Adams’ lawyer in his federal case, didn’t respond to  a request for comment, nor did a mayoral spokesperson.

Asked about his aide’s arrest Tuesday, Adams said: “I would never instruct anyone to do anything illegal or improper. Follow the law is my number one instruction. I don’t give people illegal instructions.”

Adams went on to say of Bahi: “I know he delivered for New Yorkers and I thank him for that.”

As Documented reported, the businessman is believed to be Tolib Mansurov , who runs a company called United Elite Group. Records described in the complaint show that the Adams campaign reported five donations of $2,000 each from Mansurov and four other company employees.

Mansurov is now cooperating with federal investigators and admitted his involvement in the straw donor scheme, according to the complaint. Mansurov and his company did not respond to requests for comment.

A second Adams liaison to Muslim communities who worked with Bahi, Ahsad Chughtai, was visited by agents with the FBI and city Department of Investigation over the summer, THE CITY reported hours after Bahi’s court appearance.

Bahi and Chughtai are two of a number of Adams deputies, advisors and fundraisers to depart in the wake of federal search warrants and the mayor’s late-September indictment, including First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Police Commissioner Edward Caban , Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks , Senior Advisor Timothy Pearson , Schools Chancellor David Banks , and community liaisons Winnie Greco and Rana Abbasova .

Speaking at his press briefing Tuesday, Adams downplayed the parade of high-profile departures.

“We want to have the perception that everyone is fleeing. No! We have our 300,000 employees,” Adams said. “People are here to serve the city of New York.”

Additional reporting by Katie Honan and Greg B. Smith.

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