NEW YORK — As late as last year, Mayor Eric Adams still shared ownership of a Brooklyn co-op that he previously claimed he transferred to a friend, according to a financial disclosure released Wednesday morning.

The turnabout marked the latest chapter in the mysterious personal life of the new mayor of the nation’s largest city — a saga that involves overnight stays in a government building; a public tour of a cluttered, subterranean apartment; and late nights at the home of a friend with a checkered past.

A six-page form on file with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board reveals that in 2021, the mayor still owned 50 percent of a one-bedroom co-op on Prospect Place in Brooklyn that he bought decades ago. He valued his share of the property at $250,000 to $500,000, according to the routine form that all elected officials must fill out annually.

The otherwise-routine disclosure exposed another inaccuracy in the mayor’s personal housekeeping.

When questions arose about Adams’ real estate portfolio during the Democratic primary last year, campaign adviser Evan Thies told POLITICO that Adams had signed his interest in the unit over to the other owner, and no longer had a stake in the property.

He said the campaign would amend documents referencing the Prospect Place address to clarify he no longer owned it. Last June Thies also said Adams — whose residency became a focal point in the final weeks of the primary — had not lived in the co-op for about 10 years.

That same month, Adams himself told THE CITY that the woman with whom he owned the apartment should have alerted the cooperative board of the transfer.

Not only did Adams newly disclose the property in the most recent conflicts board disclosure, he amended five past forms to register partial ownership of the property. Forms covering the years 2016 through 2020 that POLITICO obtained during the 2021 election do not include the address. However, the same forms on the board’s website Wednesday do — and the conflicts board confirmed they have been updated.

The tale of Adams’ nebulous whereabouts begins at the Prospect Place cooperative, which the mayor purchased some three decades ago with his then-partner, Sylvia Cowan.

Throughout the campaign, Adams’ team maintained that he had ceded ownership of the unit to the former girlfriend years ago without requiring any payment from her. And the appearance of the Prospect Place address on election documents as recently as last year were all clerical mistakes, according to Thies.

On Wednesday, mayoral spokesperson Fabien Levy said that while Adams transferred ownership of the property to Cowan in 2007, she did not file a new deed for the unit.

“The mayor has not lived at, earned any income from, or controlled the property in over a decade,” Levy said.

The mayor discovered he still owned the property last year, when Adams replaced his longtime accountant, Clarence Harley, who has been blamed for several mishaps during the campaign.

“Once he got a new accountant, …read more

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/22/disclosure-reports-eric-adams-brooklyn-co-op-00041324