FBI agents on Thursday raided two Bronx homes owned by Winnie Greco, a top aide to Mayor Adams, multiple sources confirmed to the Daily News.
Greco, Adams’ director of Asian affairs, has for months been the subject of a city Department of Investigation probe examining whether she attempted to milk perks out of her government job. It wasn’t immediately clear if Thursday’s FBI raids, which targeted two homes that Greco owns on Gillespie Avenue in Pelham Bay, are related to the DOI investigation.
A law enforcement source described the Thursday action as “court-authorized law enforcement activity.”
According to the news outlet The City, FBI agents also Thursday raided offices of the New World Mall in Queens, where Greco helped host a series of fundraisers for Adams’ 2021 campaign that generated tens of thousands of dollars in contributions, some of which have raised straw donor concerns.
An Adams administration official confirmed after the raids that Greco has been placed on leave, but wouldn’t say whether she’s still drawing a salary while away from her post. The official said the mayor’s office hasn’t been contacted by either the FBI or federal prosecutors about the matter.
Greco did not return phone calls or text messages.
The raids on Gillespie Avenue were first reported by News12 The Bronx. Video posted on X by freelance journalist Oliya Scootercaster showed FBI agents exiting one of Greco’s homes carrying boxes and bags that they loaded into awaiting SUVs.
A next-door neighbor told The News that the FBI agents first arrived at 6 a.m. Thursday.
“They have been in and out of the house. The whole road crossing was blocked,” said the neighbor.
Last year, The City first reported Greco was being probed by the city Department of Investigation based on a referral from the mayor’s office, but a DOI spokesperson would not divulge what that investigation’s focus was at the time. A spokesperson for DOI also declined comment Thursday.
The DOI probe came on the heels of The City’s reporting that Greco, who has worked for Adams since he was Brooklyn borough president, asked a volunteer for the mayor’s 2021 campaign to renovate her Bronx home for free before getting a job in the Adams administration.
That outlet also reported that after that campaign volunteer was hired by the city, Greco continued to demand he perform work on her home while on the city’s time. Additionally, the outlet reported Greco had sought a $10,000 contribution to a nonprofit she founded from a businessman in exchange for admission to a Chinese-themed government event at Gracie Mansion hosted by Adams.
When asked about the feds’ activity at Greco’s addresses, Adams spokesman Fabien Levy said that “our administration will always follow the law.”
“We always expect all our employees to adhere to the strictest ethical guidelines. As we have repeatedly said, we don’t comment on matters that are under review, but will fully cooperate with any review underway,” Levy added. “The mayor has not been accused of any wrongdoing.”
Property records show Greco bought one of the raided homes for $850,000 just this past Oct. 16. She holds a $680,000 mortgage on the property, records show.
Greco earns $100,000 annually in her city job, according to payroll records.
In paperwork for the $680,000 mortgage, Greco identified herself as residing at a second one-family home just across the street. That’s the second property that was targeted by the feds Thursday.
Property records show Greco owns the second property with Nickolas Greco, her husband.
It’s unclear which of the two buildings Greco permanently resides in.
The feds’ interest in Greco comes as the mayor himself faces a federal probe into his ties to Turkey. As part of that investigation, the FBI raided the homes of Brianna Suggs, a top fundraiser for Adams, and City Hall staffer Rana Abbasova. The FBI also seized the mayor’s electronic devices as part of their investigation.
It’s unclear if the raid in the Bronx is tied to that probe into foreign involvement in local politics.
Records show Greco likely has her own connections to a foreign government.
It first emerged last year that Greco served as a consultant to multiple local Chinese interest groups that receive funding from Beijing’s Communist government. And in a previously unknown wrinkle, Greco also identified herself in a 2014 letter reviewed by The News as the CEO of the New York Sino Agricultural Organization, a Chinese investment group.
Under Greco’s leadership, the Sino organization was in talks in the mid-2010s with the upstate municipality of Warwick about purchasing the shuttered Mid-Orange Correctional Facility in hopes of turning it into an “agricultural education center,” according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Supreme Court in 2021.
In 2013, Warwick Town Supervisor Mike Sweeton told the Times Herald-Record that the Chinese government was actually behind the bid to buy the old prison. Citing Sweeton, the local newspaper reported at the time that China’s government was hoping to turn the closed prison into “an agricultural university or a vocational school, where they can learn about American agricultural technology.”
Sino’s bid to buy the old prison ultimately never came to fruition.
