A Brooklyn businessman served as a proxy for the government of Uzbekistan to leverage  Mayor Eric Adams’ stature as the leader of the nation’s biggest city to sanitize the regime’s tarnished image, law enforcement records reviewed by THE CITY allege. To curry the mayor’s favor, the businessman, Tolib Mansurov, allegedly arranged illegal straw donations to his mayoral campaigns.

In return, the mayor hosted a City Hall event for local Uzbek leaders, performed one of his signature flag-raising events for the Central Asian country and assisted Mansurov in his battles with the buildings department, prosecutors allege in recently unsealed documents.

Mansurov’s purported mission to influence the mayor on behalf of a foreign country mirrors other behind-the-scenes maneuvers uncovered by the FBI and the city Department of Investigation in their years-long probe of Adams’ fundraising practices. An intent, it appears, was to purchase the legitimacy of the Office of the Mayor to burnish the reputation of Uzbekistan, which has been cited for human rights violations — a similar pattern to alleged straw donations from Turkish foreign interests.

Mansurov “is connected to the government of Uzbekistan and works to influence Adams on behalf of Uzbek and Central Asian causes,” Manhattan federal prosecutors alleged in documents filed in the now-defunct corruption case against Adams. They note that during the time he was scaring up donations for Adams, Mansurov was in constant with the Uzbek mission to the United Nations.

Prosecutors also describe a foreign source for some of Mansurov’s finances, citing evidence that he’d received millions of dollars through an elaborate money-laundering scheme from a foreign entity based in Cyprus to finance his purchase of real estate in Brooklyn. Mansurov is a dual U.S. and Uzbek citizen.

Reached by phone Friday, Mansurov declined to answer THE CITY’s questions about the allegations in the government filings, stating, “I’m sorry I’m not available right now” before hanging up.

Mansurov has not been charged with a crime but has agreed to cooperate with law enforcement in the hopes of winning leniency if he is charged, the documents state. In conversations with prosecutors, Mansurov has denied the money-laundering allegations but has itted raising tens of thousands of dollars for Adams on three separate occasions, including reimbursing some of the donors to provide the mayor with illegal straw donations that the mayor’s campaign used to obtain matching funds.

In one text session in which the mayor solicited yet another round of donations for his reelection campaign, Adams gushed to Mansurov, “You have always been my strongest go to person.”

Seeking

The trend of foreign interests with dubious histories conniving to obtain from Adams was first exposed in the federal indictment of Eric Adams last fall. Manhattan federal prosecutors charged the mayor with soliciting and accepting tens of thousands of dollars in travel perks and a bevy of illegal “straw donations” for his campaigns in exchange for providing assistance to the government of Turkey.

In return, prosecutors alleged, the mayor helped the Turkish consul navigate a dispute with the Fire Department over a Midtown office tower the government was trying to open in time for a visit by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At the request of Turkish officials, Adams also cut ties with a local community center perceived as opposing Erdogan, and, at their request, did not speak out on the anniversary of the Armenian genocide, the indictment alleged.

Meanwhile, Chinese community leaders have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Adams’ campaigns — including some that appear to be illegal straw donations.

Winnie Greco, for instance, was the mayor’s liaison to the Asian community before her homes were investigation by THE CITY found.

Both Turkey and China have long been criticized for human rights violations and suppression of an independent press, as has Uzbekistan, the Central Asian country Mansurov represented in his effort to gain Adams’ , according to a 2024 report by Human Rights Watch.

Shahida Yakub, a journalist who was recently denied entry to Uzbekistan over her work critical of the regime of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, said the authorities routinely punish journalists for work the government deems subversive, including arresting bloggers and putting them in psychiatric facilities.

“If they don’t like something — criticism in particular — they’re going to go after you,” she said.

The Uzbeki effort to gain the public relations benefits of Adams’ friendship reflects a desire to present an image to the world that they embrace Western values, she said — an image that paints over the reality of censorship and anti-democratic activities.

“They’re trying to get themselves legitimacy, especially in the West,” she said. “They always want to be liked by the U.S. The mayor of New York is important.”

Traveling the Silk Road

Mansurov’s work for the Uzbek government surfaced earlier this month in documents a judge ordered unsealed after President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice succeeded in getting the criminal case against Adams dismissed.

In the documents, prosecutors describe Mansurov as a prominent member of New York City’s Uzbek community with deep ties to the Uzbekistan regime. Throughout 2023 and into 2024 while he was raising money for Adams, he had 292 communications with a phone ed to a member of the Uzbekistan mission to the United Nations, they allege. (The mission did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.)

In seeking search warrants for a variety of addresses and electronic devices, prosecutors presented evidence of Mansurov’s interaction with top levels of the Uzbek government. His social media postings include references to his “dinner with Uzbek officials,” a meeting with the Minister of Natural Resources of Uzbekistan, and a photo of what appears to be a watch in a ceremonial case he got as a gift from the president of Uzbekistan. “Thank you Mr. President,” the posting states.

The records in of search warrants also outline an aggressive effort by Mansurov to lobby for City Hall’s , particularly by targeting Fred Kreizman, commissioner of the mayor’s Community Affairs Unit. Investigators documented 55 calls Mansurov made during 2023 to Kreizman’s phone.

Adams also sat for a March 2023 meeting at City Hall with Javlon Vakhabov, Uzbekistan’s ambassador to the United States and Canada. Also in attendance was Edward Mermelstein, the mayor’s commissioner for international affairs, and Rana Abasova, the mayoral aide prosecutors say was instrumental in helping to orchestrate the Turkish straw donations.

They also note the interaction between City Hall and the Silk Road Foundation, a nonprofit Mansurov set up in 2023 to help migrants from Central Asian countries (including Uzbekistan) settle in the United States.

Silk Road co-hosted at least three events Adams attended, including dinners in April 2023 and March 2024 at Brooklyn restaurants to participate in the Muslim fast-breaking evening meal during Ramadan.

And Silk Road ed with the Uzbek mission to the United Nations to co-sponsor a Sept. 2, 2023, event where Adams raised the Uzbek flag at Bowling Green. Afterwards Mansurov posted a photo of himself with Adams, gushing, “Happy Uzbekistan Independence Day! Mayor Eric Adams made history by being the first to raise the Uzbek flag on Wall Street! A proud moment for NYC’s vibrant Uzbek community.”

Silk Road also co-hosted a July 2023 roundtable discussion between Adams and of the Uzbek community at City Hall. After the event an Uzbek participant praised Silk Road on social media, writing,”HISTORIC EVENT the 1st ever Uzbek community roundtable with Mayor Eric Adams took place inside City Hall. Very proud of Silk Road Foundation and Tolib Mansurov for being the leaders who really care about their community and working hard to bring resources to their people.”

Mansurov has been the recipient of millions of dollars in funds from overseas. He owns two Brooklyn-based firms, one of which was involved in the February 2024 purchase of an apartment building in Brooklyn for $13.5 million.

To purchase that property, prosecutors alleged that in 2020 Mansurov “appears to have engaged in money laundering activity” that starts in January 2020 with a deposit of $11.7 million from a Cyprus-based entity into a bank he’s a signatory on.

“Over the course of approximately the next two weeks, those funds were wired among a series of s for which Mansurov was a signatory until they were used to purchase a building in Brooklyn,” stated an FBI agent whose identity was masked in the affidavit filed to obtain a search warrant. “Based on my participation in money laundering investigations, I know that the rapid movement of large sums of money between s is indicative of an effort to conceal or disguise the nature and source of the funds.”

Mansurov’s first fundraising effort for Adams appears to have begun in December 2020 when Mohamed Bahi, then a volunteer in Adams’ 2021 campaign, reached out to Mansurov for financial help on the mayor’s run for City Hall, prosecutors say.

The solicitation took place after Adams had won the general election but before he took office. Bahi asked Mansurov to raise $10,000 for the mayor’s 2021 campaign, according to prosecutors. When Mansurov offered to write a check, Bahi explained companies can’t donate and the limit for individual donations to mayoral candidates is $2,000.

To overcome the campaign finance restrictions, Bahi instructed Mansurov to get enough of the donations within the limits to make the $10,000 goal, prosecutors say. Mansurov told law enforcement he then arranged for four of the employees of one of his companies, United Elite Group, to each make $2,000 contributions. He himself contributed another $2,000, then reimbursed each of his workers with cash, he told prosecutors.

Six months later, in mid-June 2023, Adams texted directly with Mansurov, seeking more donations for his planned 2025 re-election bid, according to the search warrant records. Mansurov told prosecutors he arranged for 10 more donations of $1,000 each, reimbursing one of the donors.

At one point in their communications, Mansurov suggested the mayor text him using Signal, an encrypted app that can automatically delete communications after a set time. Adams responded “Okay.”

It appears the mayor embraced that suggestion when, about a year later, he reached out to Mansurov via Signal asking for more donations to help him boost his claims for matching funds, the filings state. (The city Campaign Finance Board provides campaigns with $8 for every $1 candidates raise from New York City residents up to the first $250.)

What’s remarkable about the conversation between Adams and Mansurov is its timing: it took place in mid-May 2024 — months after the FBI and DOI had approached the mayor after an event near Washington Square Park and confiscated several of Adams’ electronic devices.

Using a new personal phone he obtained after his interaction with law enforcement, Adams texted Mansurov, stating, “I need a big favor.” The mayor explained that he needed to quickly get 1,000 donations of $250 each to qualify for matching funds.

He asked Mansurov to scare up 20 of these smaller donations, praising him as “my strongest go to person.”

During his discussions with prosecutors, Mansurov told prosecutors that he initially believed the mayor was seeking 20 individual donations, but in a subsequent conversation, Bahi “referred to Adams’ request as a request for $5,000,” indicating the mayor didn’t care how he got it, just that he needed it arranged in $250 chunks.

The documents do not state whether Mansurov succeeded in reaching Adams’ requested goal, although records show that Oybek Shakirov, the chief financial officer of his company, United Elite Group, made a $250 donation that June. Shakirov was also one of the employees Mansurov says he reimbursed in the 2020 straw donor scheme.

During his repeated efforts to meet the mayor’s contribution needs while seeking to gain Adams’ for his country, Mansurov at one point made a more personal request related to problems he was having with the Department of Buildings on a six-story condo he was building in Crown Heights.

At one point he connected his fundraising to his request for assistance with resolving a partial stop work order the Department of Buildings had put on his property. In a July 25, 2022, text message reviewed by law enforcement, Mansurov complained to someone whose identity was blacked out that the bank had “stopped financing our project” because of the violation.

“I’m in deep shiiiit because of it. You guys couldn’t protect me from DOB.”

That same day in a text with Bahi, he wrote, “I don’t want to hear about politicians anymore…please keep me away from all of them. No more fund risings [sic] or BS promises lol.”

Two months later, DOB issued another partial stop work order, charging that the required on-site inspector for concrete pours couldn’t produce certification of his qualification. Despite his feelings about politicians, Mansurov tried a more direct approach, texting Adams himself. In a February 5, 2023, text, Mansurov explained his DOB issues to the mayor and stated, “I need help. I never asked you or anyone for favors but I am having a hard time with DOB.” He added he’d “reached a certain limit that only you can lift.”

Mansourov added: “Please help me so I can continue giving back to the community.”

Later that day Adams responded, “Let me look into this.”

The DOB lifted most of the partial stop work order on Feb. 12. Two days later Mansurov texted the mayor again, thanking him “for your help,” writing that the DOB issue was “partially resolved” and promising “my continued .”

In June 2024, the FBI and DOI for the first time confronted Mansurov and the four straw donors. All denied the donations were reimbursed. A few days later, however, Mansurov reversed course and agreed to talk with the federal prosecutors leading the investigation of Adams.

Adams was criminal complaint against Bahi alleging that he’d deleted Signal from his cell phone just before the agents entered his home to seize his electronic devices.

Early this year, prosecutors announced Bahi had agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge related to the straw donor scheme. Since then, however, the Trump Justice Department got the indictment against Adams dismissed. To date, Bahi has yet to formally plead guilty to any charges.