Adams adviser Winnie Greco on paid ‘sick leave’ after medical episode during FBI raids at her homes
Winnie Greco, a senior adviser to Mayor Adams, is on paid sick leave after suffering a medical episode during an FBI raid at her Bronx home Thursday morning, according to a City Hall official.
The medical episode was serious enough that the feds called an ambulance that took Greco to a local hospital, the official, who insisted on speaking only on the condition of anonymity, said Friday. The official declined to characterize the medical episode or say whether Greco’s still in the hospital, but confirmed she went on paid sick leave after the raid.
A source briefed on the matter told the Daily News that Greco was complaining of back pain before the ambulance arrived.
The FDNY confirmed it received a call for medical assistance at Greco’s home at 6:53 a.m. Thursday — right around the time neighbors said the raid started. A person was then taken by ambulance from the house to nearby Montefiore Hospital, according to the FDNY, which would not confirm details about the individual’s name or condition.
Greco has not returned calls and texts this week.
City Hall initially declined to say Thursday whether Greco’s leave was paid. On Friday, the City Hall official said she’s not performing any city government duties for the time being and that she’ll have to go on unpaid leave after her medical absence is over, unless she has vacation time accrued.
Adams first revealed in a blitz of TV and radio news appearances earlier Friday that Greco is on “sick leave” that he described as being unrelated “at this time” to the FBI search at her home. He also said he continues to have full confidence in Greco despite the FBI activity and didn’t rule out letting her return to work.
“We will do an evaluation based on information that comes in,” he said when asked if Greco can eventually come back to City Hall, where she receives a $100,000 salary as the mayor’s Asian Affairs director.
Around dawn Thursday, the feds raided Greco’s primary residence on Gillespie Ave. in Pelham Bay as well as a second home she owns on the same street. Additionally, the feds raided the offices of New World Mall in Queens, where Greco helped host a number of fundraisers for Adams’ 2021 campaign, some of which have drawn legal concern from city regulators.
The focus of the federal investigation that prompted the Greco raids remains unknown. The searches come after Greco became the subject of a city Department of Investigation probe last year after the news outlet The City reported she made a volunteer for Adams’ 2021 campaign renovate her Bronx home for free before continuing to demand he perform work at her residence upon him getting a job in the Adams administration.
On top of the scrutinized fundraisers at New World Mall, Greco reportedly also pressed a businessman for a $10,000 donation to a nonprofit she founded in exchange for admission to a government event hosted by Adams at Gracie Mansion.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, which is leading the investigation into Greco, declined to comment Friday.
Greco, who has ties to local Chinese interest groups that receive funding from Beijing’s Communist government, started working for Adams while he was Brooklyn borough president. She was also a prolific fundraiser for Adams’ successful 2021 run.
Greco’s the third Adams adviser to be raided by the FBI in the past few months.
In November, the feds raided the homes of Brianna Suggs, a top fundraiser for Adams, and City Hall aide Rana Abbasova as part of an investigation into whether the Turkish government funneled illegal foreign money into the mayor’s 2021 campaign. A few days after those raids, FBI agents stopped Adams in the street and seized his electronics, including his cellphones, as part of the same probe. Abbasova was suspended without pay while Suggs was reassigned to a different position in the campaign.
The Turkey probe is led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and believed to be separate from the Greco investigation.
Adams, who has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with either probe, said on PIX11 he has not been contacted by the feds about Greco and sought to downplay the significance of the raid at her homes.
“Whenever there’s an inquiry, that review must be done and that’s the process,” he said. “I tell everyone to follow the law.”
Asked whether he should have done better vetting of his City Hall hires, given the recent flurry of law enforcement activity, Adams demurred. “We did a great job of vetting,” he said on 1010WINS.
Beyond the federal inquiries, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last year indicted a group of Adams supporters, including a retired NYPD inspector friendly with the mayor, on charges they orchestrated a sweeping straw donor scheme to boost the mayor’s 2021 campaign. The NYPD inspector, Dwayne Montgomery, who has been described as the mastermind of that scheme, pleaded guilty to his role in the straw donor effort earlier this month.
Last summer, Bragg also indicted Eric Ulrich, Adams’ first Buildings Department commissioner, on bribery charges. Ulrich has pleaded not guilty.
With Thomas Tracy
View more on New York Daily News