A prominent figure in Flushing’s Chinese Community was named in the latest indictments Thursday against Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Mayor Eric Adams’ longtime ally and former chief advisor, who was charged with multiple counts of bribery and conspiracy.
According to court documents, Lewis-Martin used her senior position at City Hall to steer contracts and expedite approvals for developer Tian Ji Li — a former co-owner of Flushing’s New World Mall and a prominent fundraiser for Mayor Eric Adams’ 2021 campaign — in exchange for payment, and other benefits.
Lewis-Martin was charged with accepting more than $75,000 in bribes, including $50,000 that was funneled into her son Glenn D. Martin II’s bank account, in a series of alleged bribery schemes between March 2022 and November 2024, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the NYC Department of Investigation.
Li has long been a political influencer in the Chinese community. As an immigrant from Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province in China, he served as president of USA Jiangzhe Chamber of Commerce & Industry,Inc. and president of the Alliance of Asian American Friends and attempted to personally donate $8,100 to Adams’ campaign, which was well above the $2,000 contribution cap, before receiving two refunds for exceeding the limit.
The latest indictments name eight co-defendants, including Martin II, former state senator and deputy commissioner for Real Estate Services at the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services Jesse Hamilton, and Li, who previously owned a shopping mall in Flushing linked to questionable donations to Adams’ 2021 campaign.
Lewis-Martin faces four counts of conspiracy in the fourth degree and four counts of bribe receiving in the second degree. Her son faces two conspiracy counts and two bribery counts. Hamilton and Li are also charged, along with five others.
“We allege that Ingrid Lewis-Martin engaged in classic bribery conspiracies that had a deep and wide-ranging impact on city government,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “Hardworking city employees were undermined, businesses and developers who followed the law were pushed aside, and the public was victimized by corruption at the highest levels of government.”
THE CITY and Documented previously reported that Adams’ 2021 campaign received clusters of questionable donations tied to employees of the New World Mall and the Jmart grocery chain, some of whom later said they were requested by their employers to make contributions that were illegally reimbursed with cash. Under the city’s 8-to-1 matching funds program, such $250 contributions could yield up to $2,000 in public funds for candidates.
Prosecutors say Lewis-Martin directed City Hall and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to award contracts for asylum seeker shelters to Li’s preferred property owners, with Li allegedly receiving a 10% cut from the agreements and transferring part of the money into an account belonging to Lewis-Martin’s son’s. The indictment also alleges that Lewis-Martin conspired with Li to fast-track approvals for Li’s karaoke bar, V Show, in Queens.
In February 2023, one of Li’s associates secured a $1.2 million Health + Hospitals contract to provide migrant housing, according to the indictment. A trail of payments then passed through Li’s companies, including Great Future New York and Bazzaara Inc., to V Show, before $50,000 was ultimately wired to Martin II’s company in August 2023.
Between 2022 and 2024, court records show that Lewis-Martin and Li communicated daily or weekly about expediting permits and approvals for V Show and securing shelter contracts for Li’s associates. Prosecutors say she personally pressured officials at the Department of Buildings and the Fire Department to approve permits ahead of schedule, at times texting the FDNY commissioner at 2 a.m. to push applications forward.
She also allegedly leaned on high-ranking officials at City Hall, the Office of Asylum Seeker Operations, DCAS, the Department of Social Services, and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice to secure contracts.
In one call to Hamilton, who is charged in a separate indictment, she said, “I need those done…whatever site TJ wants, I need him to get them. Because that’s our f****** people.” In another, Hamilton allegedly confirmed Li’s priority status when discussing shelter sites, saying, “TJ, he’s, he’s first. He’s first in line.”
Prosecutors say Lewis-Martin also overrode objections to directing business towards Li or his associates. In August 2024, when a City Hall employee flagged concerns about a shelter site, she allegedly insisted on a conference call: “Move that s*** forward unless the Mayor tells us otherwise.”
Li also cultivated a close personal relationship with Lewis-Martin. The two attended the SOMOS conference, an annual event intended to address and serve the needs of the Latino community in New York, in Puerto Rico with her in November 2023. Li posted a picture with Lewis-Martin in Puerto Rico on WeChat on November 12, 2023, captioning: “Goodbye — beautiful and attractive Puerto Rico.” About a month later, on Dec. 15, Li’s nightclub, V Show, held its grand opening.
In September 2024, Lewis-Martin, Li, Martin II, and Hamilton traveled together to Japan, which Lewis-Martin later characterized as a vacation, shortly after it was reported that she and Hamilton had their cellphones seized by Manhattan district attorney investigators upon their return at JFK Airport. On the return flight, Li allegedly deleted text messages with Lewis-Martin and Hamilton. Their phones were seized on the same day under search warrants. According to indictments, by November 2024, after career public servants reviewed contracts with greater scrutiny, one of the disputed hotel shelter sites was removed from consideration.
A similar pattern
This was not the first time Adams’ fundraisers and close allies in the Chinese community faced allegations of bribery or using their positions for quid pro quo.
In February, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment charging Chinese businesswoman and developer Weihong Hu with conspiracy and fraud tied to a pandemic housing program.
Court documents showed that Hu’s hotels received $12 million in public funds through the Emergency Housing Program, while her catering company collected another $17 million. Prosecutors say those contracts were secured by bribing the nonprofit overseeing the program. Winnie Greco, a former Adams aide and liaison to the Chinese community whose home was raided by the FBI, reportedly lived for about eight months in one of Hu’s hotels that was designated for the program.
As reported by THE CITY, Documented, and The Guardian, Hu, who was behind the Fresh Meadows Hotel under the Mayflower Regional Center, secured over $6 million in guaranteed annual rental income and other favors from the Adams administration after bundling tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations for his mayoral bid.
According to the investigations, Hu hosted a gala fundraiser for Adams’ 2025 re-election campaign on June 9, 2023. At least three contributors to Adams’ campaign that day alleged that they or their spouses were illegally reimbursed by Hu’s family for their $2,000 donations.
In addition to the federal investigation, Hu is also facing lawsuits in China. One Chinese EB-5 investor in Hu’s Fresh Meadows Hotel program told Documented last October that Hu’s company bilked her out of $530,000, citing financial troubles, while quietly purchasing a $5 million three-bedroom condo with cash in Hudson Yards in October 2022.
Meanwhile, Adams’ 2025 re-election campaign has become embroiled in fresh scandals. THE CITY recently found that the campaign once again accepted donations from apparent straw donors and submitted them to the city’s $8-to-$1 public matching program. Several individuals listed as contributors said they were unemployed and never donated to Adams or any other candidate.
On Wednesday, the mayor’s former director of Asian affairs and top fundraiser, Winnie Greco, was suspended from volunteering for Adams’ re-election campaign after handing a CITY reporter a red envelope of cash hidden inside a potato chip bag. Greco had resigned from City Hall last year following FBI raids on her home as part of a federal probe into possible Chinese government interference in the 2021 mayor’s race. THE CITY also reported that she had promised a campaign volunteer a job in the administration in exchange for free renovations on her Bronx home and asked a businessman to donate $10,000 to her charity in return for access to a Chinese-focused event at Gracie Mansion.
