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Top NYC mayoral aide cast shadow over first Adams-era corruption trial
By
David Brand
Published Nov 13, 2026 at 6:30 a.m. ET
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ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
By
David Brand
Published Nov 13, 2026 at 6:30 a.m. ET
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Few New Yorkers may recall Eric Ulrich’s role in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. The once-up-and-coming Republican city councilmember lasted just 184 days as buildings commissioner before emerging as the focus of the first in a long series of corruption investigations into what state and federal prosecutors have described as a pay-to-play culture within the Adams administration.
Ulrich is charged with trading favors for cash and gifts worth more than $10,000.
But as the fourth week of his trial comes to a close in Manhattan, a more prominent figure from the Adams era has loomed large in recorded phone calls played throughout the proceedings. Adams’ former chief adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin — who faces her own, unrelated corruption trial — has made frequent cameos in the prosecutors’ narrative as a behind-the-scenes fixer to whom local businesspeople turned when they wanted favors from Adams’ City Hall, like reopening a fire-damaged bakery in Williamsburg or getting a Brooklyn-based towing company back on the road.
“You’re a priority for me,” she said in one taped call with an Ozone Park restaurateur who fundraised for Adams’ mayoral campaign and was seeking help expediting a health inspection.
The recordings were made by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which obtained a court order to tap the phones of Ulrich and his associates — including pizza shop owner Joseph Livreri — for a full year starting in November 2021 as part of an investigation into illegal gambling. Livreri pleaded guilty to a bribery charge and told a Manhattan judge he gave Ulrich $4,000.
Lewis-Martin is separately charged with allegedly soliciting bribes, including $150,000 for her son, in exchange for steering migrant shelter contracts and speeding up buildings department approvals for developers. She has pleaded not guilty.
Her attorney, Arthur Aidala, did not respond to messages seeking comment on the role she played in Ulrich’s conduct, and she has not been charged in relation to the various indictments against him.
But it was Lewis-Martin who Ulrich name-dropped when he was trying to get a vacate-order lifted so Fortunato Brothers Bakery in Williamsburg could reopen in March 2022 following a fire. Ulrich, then serving as a mayoral adviser to Adams, frequently contacted then-New York City Buildings Commissioner Melanie La Rocca to fast-track approvals for the bakery after Livreri stepped in to help the bakery owner.
When a flurry of emails, calls and an in-person meeting with La Rocca proved insufficient, Ulrich telephoned her with a new sense of urgency.
“Sorry to bother you, but I got Ingrid asking me about it now,” Ulrich told La Rocca in a taped phone call from March 10, 2022, referring to Lewis-Martin.
During courtroom testimony, La Rocca told prosecutors she found it “puzzling” that someone with such a high stature in the administration would get involved in the bakery’s problems.
“It seemed like a rather mundane thing for a member such as Ingrid to be inquiring about,” La Rocca said in her testimony.
But prosecutors say Lewis-Martin had her hand in many other schemes to help businesspeople who offered bribes, like a bit role on a TV show and gifts for her son. She allegedly sabotaged a street redesign plan in Greenpoint in exchange for cash and free catering from Tony and Gina Argento, owners of a sound stage along the route. And she is accused of pushing through buildings department approvals for a hotel owner Mayank Dwivedi and real estate investor Pinky Vaid, who prosecutors say funneled tens of thousands of dollars to her son.
Other recorded calls played in the Ulrich trial reveal how Lewis-Martin was fielding requests from Joseph Livreri and another Adams fundraiser with ties to Ulrich.
Eric Ulrich at the start of his trial on corruption charges in October.
David Brand
Less than a month after Adams took office, Joseph Livreri called Lewis-Martin at home on behalf of a friend, Michael Mazzio.
In taped phone calls, Livreri urged her to give Mazzio’s towing company permission to pull stranded cars off the highway during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022. Mazzio is facing trial alongside Ulrich and has been charged with bribery for giving Ulrich cash and a Mets season ticket package in exchange for help landing his daughter a city job.
Lewis-Martin agreed to call Adams’ then-chief of staff, Frank Carone, after talking with Livreri by phone, according to a taped phone call played in court. But minutes later, she told Livreri in another taped call that the city could not license Mazzio’s towing company because he was at the time suing the city.
“There's nothing I can do,” Lewis-Martin said. “I told Eric [Adams] and everybody. I sent some pictures.”
The next day, Ulrich griped about Livreri and Mazzio going over his head during yet another recorded conversation with his friend George Russo.
“I'm just saying to myself that I don't want them to think my people are needy. They're a pain in the a--, they’re not going to follow the rules,” Ulrich said.
But Ulrich’s “people” soon needed more help.
On Feb. 14, 2022, a city health inspector shut down Livreri’s Howard Beach pizzeria, Aldo’s, after finding mouse droppings and unrefrigerated calamari.
His brother Anthony Livreri called Ulrich asking for help to expedite a new inspection. Ulrich agreed, promptly notifying the commissioner of the mayor’s community affairs unit that the health department shut down “one of the mayor's favorite restaurants.”
Three days later, with the restaurant still closed, Ulrich called Livreri and put him on speakerphone with Lewis-Martin. Investigators recorded the call.
She agreed to help reopen the restaurant — a favorite hangout for Adams and his inner circle, including Lewis-Martin, during his victorious campaign a year earlier.
“Please do what you need to do so we can take care of you,” Lewis-Martin said in the taped call.
Before hanging up, Ulrich joked about how Livreri could repay Lewis-Martin: “She wants shrimp cocktail, just so you know, when you reopen.”
Tagged
eric adams
housing
new york city
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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