NY Mayor Eric Adams appoints exec linked to Trump Organization,

New York Mayor Eric Adams has appointed to a top city job a veteran real estate executive with ties to influential businesses and officials who have come under legal scrutiny, including the Trump Organization and Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government.

Edward Mermelstein, whom Adams named earlier this month to be commissioner of New York’s international affairs office, also is linked to public relations executive Ronn Torossian, an Adams ally who has worked for several high-profile figures over the years and has gained a reputation for being a confrontational firebrand. Torossian’s clients have included the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been criticized for anti-democratic power grabs.

Details of these connections had yet to be reported since Mermelstein was appointed earlier this month to be commissioner of international affairs, who acts as the primary liaison between the city government, foreign leaders and the United Nations. Marjorie Bloomberg Tiven, who held the position while her brother Michael Bloomberg was mayor, once said the job is meant to ensure “your head of government is behaving in a way that doesn’t offend other heads of government.”

Mermelstein is a Russian-American foreign investment attorney who has given “expert help navigating the complex foreign investment process in the United States,” according to his still-active personal website. The mayor’s office website says he came to the United States in the 1970s as a refugee from Ukraine.

In an interview with CNBC, Mermelstein, who donated just over $5,000 to Adams’ political operation after the November election, did not discuss the details of his previous clients, or how he got the position. He did say, however, that he intends to lure business to the city.

“As you are aware, lots of companies have left New York over the last couple of years and I’m looking to bring as many back, especially, my focus is international,” he said. Forbes has reported that since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, financial firms on Wall Street, including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley have relocated thousands of jobs out of New York.

Since joining Adams’ administration just over two weeks ago, Mermelstein said he’s met leaders from Belgium, France, Italy, India, Israel, Qatar and Australia. He said he has not been in touch with any business executives and has focused his time on diplomatic circles.

Mermelstein did not provide many details on the process of completing any type of financial disclosure. Yet he noted that the application he filled out was “about two and a half inches thick” and required him to disclose “anything and everything.”

If the Adams administration deems that Mermelstein’s role is full time and has “substantial policy…