Turkish government officials offered to fly Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to Istanbul for free a few months after he takes office in 2022 — but Reynoso told the Daily News on Monday that he declined the ticket. plane and returned another lavish gift they had sent him outside of legal rules. and ethical concerns.
The revelation about Reynoso’s interactions — first reported by PIX11 — follows federal prosecutors last week indicting Mayor Adams, Reynoso’s predecessor at Brooklyn BP, for soliciting and accepting more than $100,000 in tickets business class plane tickets and other luxury gifts from Turks. national.
The federal government claims the gifts amounted to bribes because Adams accepted them, both while borough president and mayor, in exchange for political favors given to the Turkish government, notably by helping it resolve security issues at its Manhattan consulate buildings.
In an interview with The News, Reynoso said representatives from the Turkish consulate came to his Borough Hall office in March 2022 to talk about issues related to Brooklyn’s Turkish diaspora.
“They met me and just talked about wanting to take me to Istanbul, saying, ‘You should come out,’ and I told them that if I’m on vacation and I decide that Turkey is the place to I want to go, I can check in with you when I’m there,” he said. “They said, ‘No, no, we can take care of it.’
Reynoso, a former city council member, said he rejected the offer because he had long been taught that public officials like him were subject to ethics laws that prohibited them from accepting gifts worth more than $50 from representatives of foreign governments. “I knew these gifts cost a lot more than that,” he said.
But Turkish authorities tried again the next day, when Reynoso said someone from the consulate returned to his office to offer him eight gold-plated porcelain teacups. Reynoso said his general counsel at Borough Hall quickly returned the tea seats to the consulate.
“The decision I made was an individual decision that speaks to my leadership within the district,” Reynoso said.
Adams has pleaded not guilty to corruption charges.
At a news conference Monday, Alex Spiro, Adams’ lead attorney in the criminal case, was asked about Reynoso’s refusals of gifts.
“I’m glad he didn’t take the china set.” If he had done it, it would not have been a federal crime,” Spiro told reporters.
