This is a headline that you could pull up from the archives over the past twenty years or more. Just swap out the names and a couple of office titles and the stories seem indistinguishable from one another. Friends and associates of a high-ranking elected official in New York State or New York City have been indicted on campaign finance corruption charges. This time it’s a group of associates of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Six of his cronies, some of whom previously served with him in the NYPD, have been indicted over a scheme where they allegedly set up straw donors to funnel money into the Mayor’s campaign coffers. The group reportedly generated tens of thousands of dollars in donations and used a city matching fund program to amplify that amount significantly. But the Mayor and his staff somehow knew nothing about any of this, according to his spokesperson. (NY Post)

Six men, including a former NYPD cop, have been indicted in a straw donor scheme allegedly cooked up to try to curry favor with then-mayoral candidate Eric Adams.

Ringleader Dwayne Montgomery — a former NYPD inspector and current head of integrity for a municipal workers union — used friends and relatives as straw donors to Adams’ mayoral campaign to cash in on the city’s generous matching fund system for political donations, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office alleges.

Neither Mayor Adams nor any current city workers are accused of wrongdoing in the case. Adams’ campaign has denied any involvement in the scheme.

Dwayne Montgomery seems to be the main actor here, though he had five alleged co-conspirators who worked with him to generate straw donations to Adams’ campaign. Montgomery was an old associate of Adams back when they were both with the NYPD. (Please assume everything in this paragraph is prefaced by the word “allegedly.”) They orchestrated at least 23 straw donations adding up to 40,000 dollars or more. Then, through a city program set up to spur greater electoral participation, they were able to tap matching funds that increased the contributions by a factor of eight.  So we’re talking about straw donations worth well over a quarter million dollars at that point.

And yet somehow neither Adams nor his staff had an inkling as to what was going on, or so we are told. That’s odd when the indictment specifically says that the scheme was intended to “curry favor” with the future mayor. So how exactly do you curry favor with someone without letting them know that you’re doing something nice for them?

‘DM: Hey, buddy. Need a favor.’

‘EA: Sorry, can’t help you.’

‘DM: What about all of that money I raised for you?’

‘EA: What money?’

‘DM: Um…’

As I mentioned at the top, this all sounds like new verses being added to an old song. Throughout his time in office, former Mayor Bill de Blasio had one aide and campaign associate after another being dragged into court, with several of them being convicted. During Andrew Cuomo’s time as New York Governor, he was surrounded by people who were indicted on corruption charges, several of whom went to prison. But somehow… mysteriously… prosecutors never managed to lay a glove on either of the men. Funny how that happens, eh?