Ingrid Lewis-Martin, former chief adviser and longtime aide to Mayor Eric Adams, was indicted Thursday alongside her son, Glenn Martin II, and two real estate investors.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams in September 2024, flanked by then-First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and top aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin. Adams was indicted in September, Wright resigned a month later and Lewis-Martin was indicted Thursday morning.
Among the allegations is that she expedited Department of Building permits in exchange for financial bribes in excess of $100K and benefits for her son, according to an indictment filed in New York State Supreme Court.
“The property involved in one or more financial transactions represented the proceeds of criminal conduct,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg wrote in the indictment, which charges Lewis-Martin with two counts of first-degree bribery and one count of third-degree money laundering.
Real estate investors Mayank Dwivedi and Raizada Vaid, also known as Pinky, were each charged with one count of bribery. In messages to Lewis-Martin, the two hoteliers sought DOB approval for a series of projects, including at 1204 Broadway and 107 Rivington St., according to the indictment.
Lewis-Martin’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, said in a statement that the facts laid out in the indictment “will make no sense to any New York jury.”
“To think that a high-ranking city official would take a bribe in the form of a check deposited into their own bank account defies common sense,” Aidala said in the statement. “We look forward to the citizens of the city of New York, who Ingrid has served so admirably for decades, clearing her name after a trial.
Spokespeople for City Hall nor the Department of Buildings immediately responded to Bisnow’s request for comment.
Lewis-Martin resigned abruptly on Sunday. At a press conference the next day, she said that she expected to be indicted.
“I’m being falsely accused of something,” Lewis-Martin said at the conference. “I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know that I was told that it’s something that’s illegal, and I have never done anything illegal in my capacity in government.”
“I’ve worked in government for over 35 years,” she added. “I have never taken any gifts, money, anything.”
The relationship between Lewis-Martin and the investors allegedly took place over the course of several years.
In one Dec. 8, 2022, communication, Lewis-Martin allegedly asked Vaid to resend a message to her using Signal, an encrypted messaging app.
“Hello Ingrid how are you? Can you pls call your source to approve application number #123165546 At Dob Still pending,” Vaid wrote, referring to a construction application for the retail and office building at 1204 Broadway, according to the indictment.
She then allegedly called and messaged the then-acting DOB commissioner, Kazimir Vilenchik. He stepped into the role in November 2022 after his predecessor, Eric Ulrich, stepped down when he was indicted on an unrelated gambling probe.
“Please look into Need to move this forward. # 123165546 At Dob Still pending Thanks,” her message said, according to the indictment.
She is accused of doing the same later that month for a construction application at 107 Rivington St., the address listed for the Hotel on Rivington.
On May 23, 2023, Vaid allegedly sent a text to Lewis-Martin’s son, asking to adjust the zoning at 28 W. 30th St. so that the building could be used for short-term rentals. He forwarded that message nine days later to a City Planning Commission member, asking “[C]an this be done?,” according to the court documents.
Three weeks later, Vaid reportedly sent Martin a picture of a Department of Transportation application with the address 876 6th Ave. In another instance, on Sept. 8, Vaid asked Martin to assist with licenses for a parking garage on behalf of someone listed in the indictment as a John Doe.
“Can you let your Mom know that Dob needs to approve this. My architect resubmitted today,” Vaid allegedly texted Martin.
Vaid and Dwivedi are both accused of meeting with Lewis-Martin and her son as well as issuing two checks of $50K each to Martin.
But the real estate investors also helped Martin in other ways.
In several conversations this year, Martin is accused of requesting assistance to establish a Chick-fil-A franchise. He also allegedly discussed the project with his mother in phone conversations.
Both Dwivedi and Vaid are linked to New York-area hotels.
Dwivedi, whose career includes a chapter on Wall Street, is a real estate entrepreneur and the managing partner of Yankee Hotel Management, a company that counts boutique East Hampton hotel The Maidstone within its portfolio, Crain Currency reported earlier this year.
Vaid is one-half of the leadership of the company with an interest in the boutique Garment District hotel The Refinery. Vaid and his partner on the 197-room hotel, Jacob Aini, secured an $88.8M refinancing deal from Morgan Stanley in August, PincusCo reported.
The indictment makes Lewis-Martin the highest-ranking member of the Adams administration to be charged with a crime aside from the mayor himself.
Adams was charged in September with five felonies, including wire fraud, bribery and receiving and soliciting campaign contributions from a foreign national.
The indictment includes allegations that Adams pushed to resolve DOB issues for a donor and instructed the New York City Fire Department to approve the opening of a $300M, 36-story tower developed for the Turkish government despite it not having passed inspection.
Lewis-Martin has been known to call herself “The Lioness of City Hall” for her will to fiercely protect her longtime friend and boss.
She didn’t hold the title of deputy mayor largely because she wanted to stay behind the scenes, she told City and State in 2022. As chief adviser, she wasn’t tied to a specific agency, but she would have been as a deputy mayor.
Lewis-Martin’s history with Adams goes back four decades to the time when her husband was in the police academy with him, according to City and State. Across from an image of a lion hung in her office is a poster of a bible verse from Isaiah 54:17, the article said. “No weapon formed against me shall prosper,” it reads.
She grew up with the same verse hung in her childhood home.
“In this line of work, it’s so needed,” she said. “People will pretend they’re your friends, they have your best interest at heart. But they don’t.”
Ciara Long contributed to this story.