A red envelope containing cash is handed out at a campaign rally for Mayor Eric Adams of New York City at Flushing Library in Queens, July 13, 2025.
Photo: Nicole Craine/The New York Times/Redux
The New York political world was abuzz following a report from The CITY Wednesday that Winnie Greco, a former adviser to Eric Adams, had attempted to give one of its reporters a potato chip bag containing more than $100 in cash. But new reporting suggests that such interactions between supporters of the mayor and members of the media have happened before.
New York Times journalists witnessed Adams supporters handing red envelopes full of cash to journalists with Chinese-language outlets at campaign events in the city in July. Per the outlet, the events took place in Flushing, Queens, Sunset Park in Brooklyn as well as Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood. According to the Times, Greco was in attendance at all three campaign rallies.
At the Queens event last month, Times reporters reportedly saw Steven Tin, the director of Better Chinatown USA, holding numerous $50 bills and giving red envelopes to reporters with Chinese outlets. The event was held outside of a public library branch and featured leaders in the local Chinese-American community. Tin told the Times that distributing the envelopes was common in Chinese culture and that it was intended as a “thank you for coming” gesture to the “reporters, YouTubers, photographers” in attendance.
Robin Mui, the head of the Sing Tao newspaper, confirmed to the Times that the red envelopes were handed out. Mui, who helped to organize the Manhattan campaign event at Confucius Plaza, told the outlet that the cash is intended to cover transportation expenses and “subsidize” the salaries of the journalists because “otherwise they don’t write their stories.”
Todd Shapiro, a spokesman for the Adams campaign, told the Times that the mayor was unaware that such actions were taking place. “Mayor Adams had absolutely no knowledge of this and does not condone it,” he said. “He has never, and would never, authorize anyone to hand out cash or gifts to reporters. Any such behavior is inappropriate and unacceptable.”
On Wednesday, The CITY revealed that Winnie Greco, the former director of Asian affairs in City Hall, handed a potato chip bag full of cash to City Hall reporter Katie Honan following a Harlem campaign event. After unsuccessfully trying to return the money, Honan handed the cash over to her editors who contacted the city’s Department of Investigation. The U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, which is already engaged in an investigation of Greco, later sent an investigator to confiscate the money. When contacted by The CITY, Greco, who is Chinese, said it was a cultural gesture and that she had made a “mistake.”
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