Beep, who wants to be mayor, finds way to avoid city campaign finance rules

B’klyn

Wannabe mayor and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is skirting campaign rules by raising tens of thousands of dollars from donors with business before the city, the Daily News has found.

Adams collected the money for his nonprofit One Brooklyn Fund his first year in office, 2014. He raised at least $995,000 and as much as $2.9 million by March 2018, according to filings with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.

The nonprofit — which is officially linked to the borough president’s office — lets wealthy donors curry favor with Adams without running afoul of rules barring city candidates from raising money from corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships.

One Brooklyn Fund also lets Adams supporters bypass city laws that exclude those corporations but allow lower contribution limits for certain people with city business.

Candidates for borough president can’t raise more than $320 from individuals in the city’s “doing business” database — and mayoral contenders can’t take more than $400 from them.

Records show at least $85,000 and as much as $340,000 raised by One Brooklyn has come from 11 entities in the database. One Brooklyn Fund has also raised at least $325,000 and as much as $1 million from entities that have recently lobbied the city, records show.

And the nonprofit’s benefactors are also giving to the borough president’s 2021 campaign, even though Adams hasn’t officially declared his candidacy for mayor.

Of the $2.19 million his campaign has raised since January 2018, at least $46,620 came from people tied to entities that have also given to One Brooklyn Fund over the years. One Brooklyn Fund director Edolphus Towns, a former congressman, even bundled $6,940 for Adams’ campaign.

Ethics watchdogs say the arrangement is ripe for conflicts.

“It can be an end run around the city’s contribution limits,” said Alex Camarda, a senior policy adviser for good-government group Reinvent Albany. “If the same entities can make contributions to a nonprofit affiliated with an elected official then the corruption risk is sky-high.”

The borough president’s office defended the arrangement. Adams spokesman Jonah Allon said, “100% of the money raised by the One Brooklyn Fund goes toward improving the lives of the people of Brooklyn. The fund follows all applicable rules and regulations and makes its financial data publicly available.”

The Walentas family, which runs the powerful real estate development firm Two Trees Management, has showered both Adams and One Brooklyn with cash.

The Walentas Foundation gave One Brooklyn between $45,000 and $140,000 from April 2015 to September 2017, disclosures show. David Walentas and his wife, Jane, also gave the Adams campaign a combined $5,500 last year. Jed Walentas, CEO of Two Trees, gave Adams $400 and bundled an additional $5,100 in donations.

Both Jed and David Walentas are in the doing business database, so they only donated $400 apiece while David’s wife, Jane, is not an officer in the company and gave the max of $5,100.

Two Trees has lobbied Adams over various land use projects in Brooklyn for years and is seeking authorization to modify requirements as part of the firm’s massive redevelopment at the Domino sugar factory site. Other Two Trees employees have given $7,000 to the Adams campaign.

Broadway Stages, a production firm that was questioned as part of a probe into Mayor de Blasio’s fund-raising, has gifted One Brooklyn Fund at least $125,000 and as much as $330,000, including an in-kind donation. The president, CEO and others at Broadway Stages have given Adams’ campaign $12,175, too. Broadway Stages is lobbying the city on legislation and zoning.

The home-sharing site Airbnb — which Adams has vocally supported — gave One Brooklyn between $20,000 and $59,999.

And Abrams Fensterman, a politically connected law firm, gave One Brookyn between $5,000 and $19,999. Firm employees also gave the Adams campaign $11,200 – including a maximum donation of $5,100 from partner Frank Carone, who isn’t on the list of