NYC Mayor Eric Adams seems to think that skin color confers legal immunity. Like a superhero's cape, dark skin tones protect politicians and make them impervious to elements of the law, or so Adams believes. In his latest example, Adams seeks to hand out renewable $10,000 debit cards to the illegal immigrants crowding our city streets and hotels. His sales pitch for this boondoggle? It's run by a "WMB", or "women- and minority-owned business."
To Adams, what's newsworthy about this sleight-of-hand handout is not taxpayer money funding illegal immigrants. It's not about caring for invaders more than our own veterans and domestic homeless. It's a good idea because the administrators of the handout (of taxpayer money) are black and/or women business owners.
"Mobility Capital Finance" is the firm chosen by Adams to disburse the debit cards. The terms of their deal are attractive: $4.375 million for producing and accounting oversight for $53 million worth of cards. A nifty 12% of the deal! Seems a bit much, but hey, it's going to women and/or minorities. And Mayor Adams isn't in cahoots with Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi), he doesn't know him at all. He promises: "We don't hang out in the Hamptons together, or go to baseball games together."
It turns out the CEO of MoCaFi (Mocha-fy, get it?) is one Wole Coaxum, an activist financial services entrepreneur. Coaxum's goal is to provide affordable financial technology to underserved populations...and to make a nice profit for himself in the meantime, it would appear.
A mere mayor can't simply hand out millions in taxpayer funds to known criminals, you say? He can sure try. Thankfully, Gale Brewer of the City Council (District 6) has proposed an investigation. Brewer, herself an elderly Democrat and former Manhattan Borough President, saw through Adams' plan and called for further oversight.
For Adams, it seems that dark skin in the corridors of power is sufficient. His goal is to have more minorities in power. As Adams queried at a City Hall meeting earlier this month, "Have you ever seen this much chocolate leading the city of New York?"
The question, Mr. Mayor, is not the color or "flavor" of those in power. It is their competency and integrity. And with stunts such as the migrant debit card boondoggle, it would appear that grift isn't colorblind after all.
