'Improper' Eric Adams Staffer On Leave During FBI Probe: Report

NEW YORK CITY — A longtime staffer for Eric Adams was placed on leave as the federal corruption investigation into his 2021 mayoral campaign, according to multiple reports.

The staffer, Rana Abbasova, was identified as the person whose "improper" behavior was reported to investigators by the Adams administration, according to the New York Post.

Sources close to the investigation told the Post that Abbasova, originally from Azerbaijan, had lied to federal investigators.

"After learning of the federal investigation, it was discovered that an individual had recently acted improperly," campaign attorney Boyd Johnson told Patch on Friday after news broke that FBI agents took Adams aside in broad daylight to seize multiple electronic devices owned by him earlier that week.

On Wednesday, a city hall spokesperson confirmed that an individual, called a "junior staffer," was placed on leave, according to the Post.

Abbasova, officially the director of protocol for international affairs, has worked with Eric Adams since his time as Brooklyn Borough President, according to her NYC.gov profile page, where her listed accomplishments included organizing "Turkic Heritage events and assisted with Sister Cities agreements."

City records uncovered by THE CITY revealed that in 2017, Abbasova requested a meeting with Adams on behalf of the Turken Foundation — a foundation run by the son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and is reportedly at the center of the ongoing FBI probe.

The FBI probe is reportedly focused on whether foreign money from Turkey was funneled into his 2021 mayoral campaign, according to the New York Times. The investigation also looked into whether his campaign kicked back benefits to a Brooklyn construction company and Turkish officials, the report states.

A 2021 report from the NY City News Service, a publication by the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, examined campaign finance records to show how money flowed into his campaign coffers after taking paid-for visits to Turkey, Azerbaijan and China, where he also created sister-city agreements.

Some experts classified Adams' worldly travels as "unusual" for a borough president, the report states.

But Adams is not the only former Brooklyn political power player interested in world travel.

In September, Frank Carone, a longtime ally and former chief of staff to Adams, traveled to Azerbaijan to discuss "geopolitical issues" with the chief of staff to the nation's authoritarian president, the Daily News revealed.

Carone told the paper that he has clients in the region, but refused to divulge who they were or if he had spoked to the Mayor about his trip.

Experts told the Daily News that Carone's trip was “odd that someone who’s an adviser to a politician on the municipal level in New York would go and discuss geopolitical issues in the region,” said Sheila Paylan, a human rights lawyer and former legal advisor at the U.N.

Neither Adams nor any other member of his staff or campaign have been accused of any wrongdoing.