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Erden Arkan, a businessman with close ties to New York’s Turkish community, pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to conspiracy to commit fraud.
Jan. 10, 2025, 4:39 p.m. ET
A Brooklyn businessman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Friday in Manhattan federal court after prosecutors said he had made illegal donations to Mayor Eric Adams’s 2021 campaign.
The businessman, Erden Arkan, is one of two people who have been charged in relation to a sprawling corruption case against Mr. Adams unveiled last year, and the first to plead guilty.
Mr. Adams was charged in late September with bribery, fraud and conspiring with Turkish officials to receive illegal foreign campaign donations and has pleaded not guilty. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Mr. Arkan has close ties with New York City’s Turkish community and owns a building firm called KSK Construction. He pleaded guilty on Friday to soliciting funds from 10 of his employees and to making straw donations to Mr. Adams’s campaign.
In court, Mr. Arkan, 76, appeared as a gaunt man in tortoiseshell glasses and a rumpled gray suit.
“When I wrote the checks, I knew the Eric Adams campaign would use the checks to apply to the public matching program,” Mr. Arkan said.
Judge Dale E. Ho ordered Mr. Arkan to return to court on Aug. 15 for sentencing and to pay $18,000 in restitution. He also faces five years in federal prison, three years’ probation and a $250,000 fine.
