The Influencer Who Bought An American Politician
Arda Sayiner hobnobbed with celebrities and promoted luxury travel destinations. He also may be a key conspirator and witness in the Eric Adams bribery case.
Who is “The Promoter”?
Like the plots of Armando Giovanni’s Veep and The Thick of It, corruption scandals involving New York Mayor Eric Adam’s administration have spiraled into absurdity. Within the past year, more than a dozen city officials and high-ranking employees have either resigned or been fired, had their homes raided by the FBI, or both. City leadership became stretched so thin and so tarnished by alleged impropriety that Adams had to put the chief of the sanitation department, Jessica Tisch, in charge of the NYPD.
At the center of this cloud of ill-repute is Adams, himself. He’s currently under federal indictment over claims that he took over $100,000 in illicit freebies, including first-class airline tickets, stays at opulent hotels, expensive meals, and straw political donations, from Turkish officials and businessmen. Adams allegedly returned the favor by pressuring NYC’s fire department into allowing a newly built Turkish government-owned skyscraper in Manhattan to open without a mandatory inspection.
The idea of Adams — the mayor of the world’s richest city — arranging travel perks through back-room deals is made-for-sketch-comedy stuff. Saturday Night Live adapted the case for laughs just three days after it was made public. Comedian Devon Walker, playing Adams in a Weekend Update segment, jokingly addressed the bribery claims with a snarky non-denial: “So you want your mayor in coach, huh? You want me in the back with my legs all cramped and my mouth all dry from the biscotti? That’s what you want?”
Funny as it all might seem on the surface, there is a disturbing theme underpinning the scandal: the ease with which foreign interest groups can win over US political figures and worm their way into the public agenda. According to federal prosecutors, this under-the-table lobbying effort was sophisticated enough to involve a skillful middleman— a social media influencer who mingled with the rich and famous and who was in a perfect position to arrange all the right introductions.
In the indictment, this person is simply referenced as “the promoter.” But news publications revealed his name: Arda Sayiner, a Turkish journalist, publicity consultant, globe-trotting brand influencer, and, evidently (my assumption, anyway), an excellent judge of exploitable weaknesses of people in power.