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A super PAC supporting ex-Mayor Eric Adams’ failed re-election bid paid more than $1 million to shady corporations — including one connected to a criminal crypto drug dealer, records show.
A Post review of the political action committee, Empower NYC, found nine firms that received tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars each had little to no identifying information about who was behind the companies.
The financial red flags discovered in the review are just the latest potential sloppy dealings surrounding Adams, whose sole term in office was plagued by allegations of corruption.
While Adams has been jet-setting in his post-mayoralty, the former Hizzoner has also fueled headlines with his “NYC Token” – a digital coin that investors have called a scam as its value plummeted shortly after launch.
NBC 4 New York recently reported that the Adams campaign also had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to untraceable companies that were created in the midst of his failed bid for re-election.
“The Eric Adams campaign for mayor has certainly kept the campaign finance board busy with investigation and this record of highly questionable Super PAC spending may put some additional work on their plate,” said Grace Rauh, president of the good government group Citizens Union.
The super PAC’s eyebrow-raising campaign expenditures include a $120,000 consulting charge on Oct. 16, 2025 – roughly a month after Adams dropped out of the race – to “Tesseract Management LLC,” listing a Wyoming address.
Business records filed with the state in 2024 name 31-year-old Eldon Stone Ross as a company representative. He was convicted of trafficking heroin in Pennsylvania in 2014 and also served time for selling $50,000 worth of Bitcoin without a license to undercover federal agents in 2018.
Ross’ name was the only one attached to Tesseract’s annual reports, which the Wyoming secretary of state notes should disclose a company’s “officers and directors.”
Other records show the company’s main address was changed in early 2025 to one in Orlando, Florida, where Ross registered to vote in 2022. The current owner of the Florida home is listed as 36-year-old Daphne Pineda, who, like Ross, did not responded to requests for comment. Ross is also associated with active Florida company “Done For You LLC,” which lists Tesseract as its manager.
Another company, “GOTV Ops Inc,” run by longtime Adams confidant Tony Herbert, received $292,000 for field work as well as consulting.
Herbert — who was fired from his city gig after calling Charlie Kirk’s death “karma” — was recently accused by the feds of pocketing $16,000 in bribes while working in the mayor’s office, and is fundraising for his legal defense through GoFundMe.
Herbert’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Rauh said super PACs are “by and large allowed to operate like the wild west,” noting Citizens Action has discouraged New Yorkers from donating to such campaign funds.
“This [reporting] is further evidence of that. You do so at your own peril and that the money that you donate to a Super PAC may end up in the pocket of people with limited campaign experience and you may have trouble tracking your dollars and seeing where they go,” she said.
While technically legal, good government groups such as Reinvent Albany, said the suspicious filings underscored the need for more transparency with expenditure spending.
“It’s just more evidence that New York City’s gotta have more disclosure of these shell companies,” spokeswoman Rachael Fauss told The Post. “This is pay-to-play and if our pay-to-play laws need to also look at vendors, then we need more disclosure and we need to peel back the onion more.”
Empower NYC CEO and lawyer Abraham George referred The Post to his lawyer when asked for clarification on who was behind the companies in the PAC’s expenditure reports.
Empower NYC raised over $3.5 million dollars from donors including former child actor turned crypto magnate Brock Pierce and powerhouse real estate development firm Two Trees Management.
The PAC spent nearly $2 million dollars, leaving the group with over $1.5 million left in the campaign coffers, according to state Board of Election records.
Sources also alleged that Empower NYC had questionable ties to the Adams campaign, including with the mayor himself directing donors to the fund, which is meant to be independent.
“The thesis was these guys are incompetent, and people donating want to know their money isn’t being wasted,” said a source with knowledge of the dealings.
“Multiple high-profile Democratic supporters approached Eric about starting truly independent PACs and he said, ‘No, that’s my guy,’” the source added, referring to George.
The city Campaign Finance Board can fine super PACs up to $10,000 if they are found to have illegally coordinated with a campaign.
Adams spokesman Todd Shapiro defended the former mayor, saying he followed the law.
“The mayor has consistently followed both the letter and the spirit of the law throughout his public service,” Shapiro said in a statement. “Attempts to conflate independent political activity with campaign conduct are misleading and ignore the clear legal framework governing Super PACs.”
Other potentially questionable expenditures to vendors included:
- “Epic Social LLC” got $400,000 in consulting fees. It lists a Florida based business address but the only company registered under that name was created in July 2025 in Delaware, a state known for its lax LLC disclosure laws.
- “LJP Visyouall LLC” got $241,000 for fundraising, professional services and consulting fees. It’s Deer Park, NY address is registered to a shipping center.
- “Gotham Group US LLC” got $62,000 for professional services and consulting fees. It lists a Brooklyn address. Requests for comment to the residents of that address were not returned.
- “Hortoh Services LLC” got $28,000. It lists a Manhattan address home to condos and a TD bank branch, but did not have any other identifying information.
- “Constituent Communications, LLC” got $175,000 for consulting services and producing ads. It lists a Scottsdale, Arizona address for most of its expenditures but one of the filing entries also lists a Montclair, New Jersey address. The Scottsdale address matches to Arizona-based GOP Consultant Chris Baker, who did not respond to a request for comment, while a resident of the New Jersey condo unit denied having any knowledge of the company.
- “Patriots Pathways Consulting Group” got $70,000 for consulting fees. It has a Florida address and is registered to Orlando resident Cesar Pinochet, 21, who created the company in June 2025. No one at the company provided a comment.
- Crowdshot Strategies got $40,000 for “ads and professional services.” Its address matches that of Notoya Green, a former reality TV star, and Fred Mwangaguhunga, the founder of black entertainment news site MediaTakeOut and an attorney at the city Department of Education. Mwangaguhunga hung up when a Post reporter called him, and later texted “no comment.”
Politico also recently reported that some $130,000 paid to Adams campaign manager Eugene Noh were never reported in campaign finance disclosure forms.
Post sources questioned, too, whether proper firewalls were installed between Noh and political strategist Justin Chae, a subcontractor for the Super PAC and Noh’s partner at Meridian Strategies.
Chae was in the process of selling a chunk of the company to Noh during the campaign.
The strategist is not listed in the expenditure reports for Empower NYC, but screenshots of an Instagram story bragging about his work for the PAC were obtained by The Post, and Chae later confirmed he was a subcontractor for the committee.
“If there is any New Yorker who believes that Justin and Eugene acted ethically by double-dipping into Eric Adams’ failing campaign funds, then I have some Eric bitcoins to sell them,” one insider quipped.
Chae denied any coordination with campaign. Noh did not return requests for comment.
The Campaign Finance Board declined to comment.
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