Aug 21: Tian Ji Li (李天骥), an immigrant from Wenzhou, Zhejiang province + a businessman in Flushing, NYC + President of the Alliance of Asian American Friends, was indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg along with six others for their alleged roles in an alleged wide-ranging bribery scandal involving Adams’ decades-long top lieutenant, Ingrid Lewis-Martin (manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-ingr)
While Adams’ spokesperson said he knows nothing of the alleged events detailed in the indictment, his most trusted aide, Lewis-Martin, is described as charting out an intricate quid-pro-quo scheme in which tens of thousands of dollars in payoffs circulated around millions of dollars worth of projects following Adams’ election.
The indictment alleges that Lewis-Martin pressured government officials to prioritize social service contract deals for Li and his hotel-owning associates “because that’s our fucking people.” She purportedly badgered city commissioners into the night.
At least one entity on Li’s list of preferred vendors landed a shelter contract with the city, reaping Li $1.2 million — a 10% cut of the deal. Li then allegedly wired $50,000 to a firm headed by Lewis-Martin’s son, Glenn Martin II. Lewis-Martin used her son to insulate herself in her dealings with Li.
Lewis-Martin pressured a number of city agencies to expedite approval of a fire alarm and permits for a glitzy karaoke club Li opened in Flushing in 2023, V Show.
Li was charged with bribery, Lewis-Martin and her son were charged with bribe-receiving, and the trio were charged with conspiracy.
All three entered pleas of not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Adams’ longtime aide Winnie Greco has known Li for decades, having worked for him years ago in a small Chinatown store, and she has been a close associate of Adams and Lewis-Martin for many years.
She resigned from her City Hall job as Adams’ Asian American liaison last Oct after FBI agents raided her two Bronx houses.
Li’s entrance into the orbit of Adams’ inner circle appeared to happen rather quickly, buoyed by his work with Greco in 2021.
During Adams’ campaign that year, Li was a fixture with Greco at many fund-raising events at Flushing’s New World Mall, a tall presence dressed in sharp suits.
Li had once been a co-owner of the mall, a bustling community hub. In 2021, it also served as a hub for the Adams campaign, hosting fundraisers that included several where multiple donors later revealed that they either did not donate or were reimbursed by their bosses, both campaign finance violations.
Li and Greco’s fundraising for Adams mushroomed from there.
When Adams gave a speech in a banquet thrown by the newly-established Alliance of Asian American Friends on July 2, 2021, just days after winning the Democratic primary for mayor, he thanked two people first: “TJ Li, Winnie Greco.”
After this, the Alliance of Asian American Friends held at least two more events for Adams, including one in August attended by as many as 100 people at the Royal Queen Restaurant at the New World Mall.
The Alliance demonstrated its fundraising prowess later that year at a windfall party in Queens on Dec 12, less than three weeks before Adams assumed office — raising more than $400,000 for Adams’ transition and inauguration in one night alone.
Shortly after Adams got to City Hall, Li was among the campaign contributors invited to a Lunar New Year celebration at Gracie Mansion in Feb 2022. Later that year, the Alliance was listed as an “in-kind donor” for the mayor’s mid-Autumn moon festival, while in June, Adams spoke at the Alliance’s “First Asian Dragon Boat Cultural Festival” in Flushing.
It was around that time— a half year after Adams assumed office with Lewis-Martin close by his side — that the chronology of Li’s indictment began.
thecity.nyc/2025/08/22/tia
documentedny.com/2025/08/22/chi
