Turkish government officials offered to fly Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to Istanbul for free a few months after he took office in 2022 — but Reynoso told the Daily News on Monday he turned down the airplane ticket and returned another lavish gift they sent him out of legal and ethical concerns. The revelation about Reynoso’s interactions — first reported by PIX11 — comes on the heels of federal prosecutors last week indicting Mayor Adams, Reynoso’s Brooklyn BP predecessor, on charges that he solicited and accepted more than $100,000 in business class airline tickets and other luxury gifts from Turkish nationals. The feds allege the freebies amounted to bribes as Adams accepted them, both while borough president and mayor, in exchange for doing political favors for the Turkish government, including helping it resolve building safety issues at its Manhattan consulate.
In an interview with The News, Reynoso said representatives from the Turkish consulate came to his Borough Hall office in March 2022 to talk about issues related to Brooklyn’s Turkish diaspora. “They met with me and just talked about wanting to take me to Istanbul, saying, ‘You should come out,’ and I said if I’m on vacation and decide Turkey is where I want to go, I can check in with you when I’m there,” he said. “They said, ‘no, no, we can take care of it.
” Reynoso, a former City Council member , said he rejected the offer because he had long been taught public offici.
