A New York watchdog group is calling on New York City to adopt new disclosure rules for campaigns after NBC New York noticed roughly 600K in 2025 Eric Adams…
A New York watchdog group is calling on New York City to adopt new disclosure rules for campaigns after NBC New York noticed roughly 600K in 2025 Eric Adams campaign payments made to LLCs with no apparent websites or traceable CEOs.
As required, the Adams campaign listed paid consultants on the Campaign Finance Board's"Follow The Money" website — but based on the information disclosed in some cases, the money could not be followed very far. "Who got the payments? What humans got them?" asked John Kaehny of Reinvent Albany after NBC New York shared how numerous searches of government databases, FEC filings, business records and the web had failed to find an actual ad-maker, pollster, or pundit linked to at least three businesses paid by the Adams campaign.According to a review of Wyoming government records, Abbott 17 was created in May 2025 - just one month before then Mayor Adams launched his third party re-election bid on the steps of City Hall. There is no CEO listed on the Abbott 17 registration papers.An NBC New York review of Wyoming business records shows Abbott 17 is registered at 30 North Gould Street -- a tiny, one-story building with a sign that reads"WYOMING CORPORATE OFFICE." The building has been the subject of news reports citing hundreds of new LLCs registered there - some legit and others not. Instead of listing an actual CEO, some LLCs registered at the address - including Abbott 17 - list"registered agents" who are not in charge of the respective companies, a practice which is legal - but not helpful if one is hoping to"follow the money" based on publicly available information. In 2025, Esquire magazine - based in part on data analysis by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists - called the North Gould Street building "a proliferation of anonymous shell companies." And Abbott 17 is not the only firm on the Adams Campaign payroll registered at this Wyoming address. A company named Public Appeal, which the Adams campaign said was hired for petitioning, is also registered at the building. Unlike Abbott 17, Public Appeal does have a public website but its CEO is not named on it. "This is incredibly suspicious," said John Kaehny of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany. "As a vendor, you don't hide your identity from the New York City Campaign Finance Board." Currently, disclosing a campaign's payments to an LLC without naming the principals does not violate the rules, nor mean that any campaign donations were misspent. "These expenditures are in compliance with CFB rules and regulations. Their disclosure was reported consistent with the campaign's filing obligations under the law," Adams Campaign Attorney Vito Pitta said in a statement. But Reinvent Albany thinks the expenditures could catch the eye of CFB investigators, who have subpoena power and can request contracts or other proof that a campaign’s money has been spent on legitimate, authorized campaign-related expenses. "Based on the concerns raised by Channel 4's reporting, Reinvent Albany urges New York City to require political campaigns to report the names of the human owners of shell companies paid by campaigns," John Kaehny said. Kaehny said the public should know where campaign contributions are really going, whether a candidate receives public matching funds or not. These companies have no websites or internet presence, are not registered to do business in New York as required by law and two of them share the same address at a notorious LLC farm in Sheridan, Wyoming. During a previously arranged interview for a different story, Mayor Adams's 2025 campaign manager Eugene Noh was able to identify one of the humans behind another murky LLC. "Fairfax Digital" was paid 500K by the Eric Adams campaign, according to their public filings.Without inside knowledge of the Adams campaign, it would be difficult to learn that the son of celebrity psychologist and Trump ally Dr. Phil McGraw had been paid half a million dollars to produce Eric Adams' social media ads. NBC New York's research could find no trace of Fairfax Digital LLC in Texas, where the Adams campaign said it was registered. And the company is not named on a list of other LLCs linked to Jordan McGraw, who did not return NBC New York's requests for comment Friday. Eugene Noh said he did not know why some of the consultants were using untraceable LLCs and that he did not make hiring decisions during his two months as campaign manager before the Mayor dropped out. "Some of them had pre-existing relationships with the Mayor and their own kind of defined roles," Noh said, describing vendors including Fairfax LLC. Vito Pitta, campaign Attorney for Eric Adams 2025 said Abbott 17 was hired for the services of strategic advisor Chris Miles. Miles's name was listed in a July 2025 Adams campaign staffing announcement but does not show up in any searches linked to a company called Abbott 17. NBC New York requested Miles’s contact information from the Adams campaign but has not received it. NBC New York also left a message for a political consultant named Chris Miles listed with a different firm but did not immediately make contact.Other than Eugene Noh, Adams campaign associates did not offer Jordan McGraw's name, nor any other name, when asked specifically who was in charge at Fairfax Digital. They declined to provide copies of any campaign contracts with vendors. Pitta, the campaign attorney said Fairfax Digital was hired to conduct analysis, digital voter-targeting and produce campaign communications. NBC New York asked the Campaign Finance board if they had received any contracts between the Adams campaign and the above LLCs that might contain more detail. So far the CFB has declined to comment.
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