Queens hotel whose owner has ties to Adams administration officials raided by feds

A Queens hotel that is being used by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and whose owner has been tied to top Adams administration officials was raided last week as part of a federal investigation, the Daily News has learned.
The hotel, the Mayflower Hotel in Long Island City, is owned by Weihong Hu, who has ties to former top Adams official Winnie Greco.
Authorities executed an early Thursday morning search warrant at the hotel as part of an investigation led by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, sources said. The hotel is currently being used as a transitional home for newly released inmates.
It was unclear what the exact target of the investigation was, what was taken during the search or if it is related to other ongoing probes. A spokeswoman for Housing Works, which operates the program for ex-inmates, said the feds did not target its initiative or any of its clients.
“Housing Works was not the target of the action by federal authorities – nor were any of the clients Housing Works serves at this site, agency management, any subsidiaries, subcontractors, etc.,” said Simbi Akiolu, the Housing Works rep.
The news outlet The City reported in May that Hu hosted Greco on taxpayers’ dime for more than eight months at the Wyndham Garden Fresh Meadows, Queens, another hotel she owns. Hu also threw fundraisers for Adams’ 2021 campaign at the Fresh Meadows hotel, and donors who participated in those events were reimbursed for their contributions by Hu’s relatives, which is illegal, The City reported.
The Wyndham Garden hotel has been used for the same ex-inmate transitional housing purposes in a program run by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice.
Greco resigned from the Adams administration in October. Her Pelham Bay homes were raided in February as part of an investigation also led by the Eastern District. Also in February, the feds raided the New World Mall in Queens — where Greco helped host lucrative fundraisers for Adams’ 2021 campaign, according to The City’s reporting. The full scope of the probe into Greco is still unclear, but it is believed to be focused, at least in part, on campaign fundraising.
Stephen Brill, Greco’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment.
Hu’s lawyer, Kevin Tung, said he did not know anything about Thursday’s raid when reached by phone.
Adams was indicted in September by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York on charges alleging he solicited and accepted illegal straw donations for his campaign in exchange for carrying out political favors. He has pleaded not guilty and his trial is scheduled for April. Other federal probes have ensnared several members of his inner circle, a number of whom have resigned in recent weeks.
“Mayor Adams has been clear that this administration is dedicated to following and upholding the law, and we will continue to cooperate with any law enforcement requests, including those unrelated to the mayor,” spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said in a statement Monday.