A former top City Hall advisor and current campaign confidante to Mayor Eric Adams attempted to give money to a reporter from THE CITY following a campaign event in Harlem Wednesday.
The failed payoff — a wad of cash in a red envelope stuffed inside an opened bag of Herr’s Sour Cream & Onion ripple potato chips — was made by Winnie Greco, a longtime Adams ally who resigned last year from her position as the mayor’s liaison to the Asian community after she was targeted in multiple investigations. She resurfaced recently as a consistent presence in his re-election campaign.
On Wednesday, City Hall reporter Katie Honan spotted Greco near the announcement of the opening of Adams’ newest campaign office, in Harlem. Greco later texted Honan after the event when she spotted her again and asked her to meet across the street from the campaign office next to a TD Bank.
Greco and Honan walked to the Whole Foods next door. While inside the store, Greco handed Honan the opened bag of chips with the top crumpled closed. Honan, thinking it was an offer of a light snack, told Greco more than once she could not accept the chips, but Greco insisted that she keep them.
The two parted ways. Before entering a nearby subway station, Honan opened the bag and discovered a red envelope inside stuffed with cash, at least one $100 bill and several $20 bills. The reporter then called Greco and told her she could not accept the money and asked if she was still nearby so she could give it back. Greco said she’d left the area. Honan told her she had to take the money back, and Greco said they could meet at some point in Chinatown.
The reporter then texted Greco, “I can’t take this, when can I give it back to you?” She did not get a response.
In an interview later Wednesday, THE CITY asked Greco what her intention was in handing money to the reporter. In response, she said she’d made “a mistake” and apologized over and over.
“I make a mistake,” she said. “I’m so sorry. It’s a culture thing. I don’t know. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry. I feel so bad right now. I’m so sorry, honey.”
She then called THE CITY back, advising that we call her attorney, Steven Brill, and adding, “Can we forget about this? I try to be a good person. Please. Please. Please don’t do in the news nothing about me.”
“I just wanted to be her friend,” Greco added. “I just wanted to have one good friend. It’s nothing.”
Brill denied that his client’s payment to THE CITY reporter was nefarious in any way.
“I can see how this looks strange,” Brill said. “But I assure you that Winnie’s intent was purely innocent. In the Chinese culture, money is often given to others in a gesture of friendship and gratitude. Winnie is apologetic and embarrassed by any negative impression or confusion this may have caused.”
After THE CITY informed the Adams campaign about the interaction with Greco, campaign spokesperson Todd Shapiro said Greco was immediately suspended from the campaign.
“We are shocked by these reports,” Shapiro said. “Winnie Grecco [sic] holds no position in this campaign and has been suspended from all VOLUNTEER campaign-related activities. Mayor Adams had no prior knowledge of this matter. He has always demanded the highest ethical and legal standards, and his sole focus remains on serving the people of New York City with integrity.”
Following the interaction at the Whole Foods, Honan brought the chips bag and envelope with money back to THE CITY’s office and handed it over to her editors. THE CITY then contacted the city Department of Investigation (DOI). Anticipating possible law enforcement investigations, THE CITY did not open the envelope or count the money inside.
“DOI received allegations from THE CITY and declines further comment,” said Diane Struzzi, DOI spokesperson.
Later Wednesday, federal prosecutors from the office of Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella contacted THE CITY’s lawyers, and on Wednesday evening an investigator retrieved the chip bag containing the red envelope and cash.
The Brooklyn U.S. attorney has been investigating Greco since early last year after the FBI raided her homes in February 2024 following THE CITY’s reporting on illegal straw donations raised at Adams’ campaign fundraisers she’d organized.
The DOI is also looking into allegations uncovered by THE CITY that she pressured a campaign volunteer to do personal tasks for her in exchange for getting him a city job.
A Long History
Greco has been a fixture of Adams’ political career for over a decade, during which time she helped him raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for his mayoral campaigns and connected him to influential members of the Chinese-American community while escorting him on multiple trips abroad to China.
She served for much of that time as an unpaid, volunteer “ambassador” to Brooklyn Borough Hall, while not taking any official roles for his political campaigns despite her prolific fundraising.
As part of the fundraising, she connected groups of campaign donors to Adams, with some contributors telling THE CITY and Documented in 2023 that they either did not give or were reimbursed by managers. Making donations under someone else’s name is illegal under the city’s public campaign finance program, which provides $8 for every $1 in small donations from New York City residents.
Greco also helped raise funds for a nonprofit linked to Brooklyn Borough Hall as a board member of One Brooklyn, which touted Adams’ initiatives and raised his profile ahead of his 2021 mayoral run.
Over those same years, Greco also collected donations for a nonprofit organization of her own — with the stated goal of erecting a “friendship archway” in Brooklyn’s Chinatown that would serve as a gateway for businesses and culture. That venture, which relied on an archway being gifted by a district government of Beijing, collapsed, leaving some donors with questions about their contributions.
Her first appointment to a paid government job came when Adams became mayor in January 2022. Within days of attending his New Year’s Eve inauguration on a stage in Times Square with a small circle of close associates, Greco was named his Asian affairs director at a salary of $100,000, while her niece also landed a role at City Hall, eventually becoming one of the mayor’s schedulers.
Greco was so close to Adams and his inner circle that his senior advisor, Ingrid-Lewis Martin, was known to introduce Greco at events as “my sister.” Lewis-Martin is currently being prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for allegedly receiving bribes and is expected to be indicted Thursday on influence-peddling charges.
In November 2023, THE CITY reported on two instances where people who interacted with Greco alleged that she had misused her government position.
A businessperson told THE CITY that Greco allegedly demanded $10,000 to her archway nonprofit as the cost of entry to a Chinese-themed event with Adams at Gracie mansion, for what was a free event.
Additionally, a campaign volunteer claimed that Greco promised to help him get a city job if he helped oversee renovations to her home in The Bronx, which he did. After he was hired by the Adams administration, Greco continued to compel him to assist her with construction-related tasks and other personal business while on the job, the aide claimed.
In an unusual arrangement, Greco also lived for nearly nine months in a two-room suite at a Queens hotel that was under city contract to house formerly incarcerated individuals.
The mayor’s press office and an attorney for the hotel owners asserted to THE CITY that Greco paid for her hotel stay but did not provide evidence.
The city Department of Investigation opened a probe in November 2023 after THE CITY’s reporting. In February 2024, the FBI raided Greco’s Bronx home and a second house nearby she had purchased recently. She then went on medical leave for a few months and came back to City Hall with a new role, and an increased salary of close to $200,000.
She resigned from the mayor’s office in October.
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