Eric Adams was indicted on federal corruption charges Thursday, becoming the first sitting mayor in New York history to be brought up on federal charges. The indictment charged Adams with five counts of bribery, wire fraud and solicitation of donations from foreign nationals.

I wish I could say I was surprised. But I saw it coming.

In 2021, at a mayoral debate, I said, “Eric, we all know that you have been investigated for corruption everywhere, city and federal. They have managed a rare threefold increase in corruption investigations. Is this really the right thing to do?” We want the next mayor? (When) you walk into City Hall, it will be exactly the same.

This is someone who has managed to break the rules at every rung of the political ladder. Even the union he once belonged to, the police captains’ union, had decided not to support him. One of the reasons I ran was because I thought I could lead a good, clean, competent administration.

After Eric won, I hoped it would work. My son attended public school. But when asked privately how I thought it would go, I said, “When you put someone with no discipline and no principles in charge of a lot of people and resources, bad things generally happen.”

Eric had a habit of hiring close friends, co-workers, and confidants for important roles that might not fit their skills or qualifications. I thought it was very likely that his government would be riddled with corruption, nepotism and self-dealing.

Despite these expectations, the last few weeks have been breathtaking. A police commissioner, a schools chancellor, a chief attorney and the head of the health department are all resigning. Numerous employees under a cloud of federal investigations and confiscated personal devices.

And now this historical accusation.

I read the indictment with a mixture of curiosity and disbelief.

Do I believe Eric Adams accepted luxury flights and accommodations from the Turkish government and then tried to return the favor? Secure.

What’s even more disturbing: Do I believe Eric Adams solicited donations from foreign nationals? Yes, I do.

When I ran against Eric in 2021, I was surprised by his fundraising. I had a nationwide network and received the highest number of individual donors in New York City election history, 21,960. But at every turn, Eric kept pace.

Now it turns out that some of his campaign money may have come from foreigners. The City of New York’s donor matching program provides a strong incentive for fraud: donations from city residents were matched eight to one, up to $250. That means if someone donated $250, your campaign received $250 from them and another $2,000 from the city.

In this context, if someone ran a small business in NYC with 12 employees, it would be tempting to say, “Hey, we’ll say each of you donated $250, and that makes our candidate $24,000!” If you were the boss of this small business, you could raise the money for your employees – say $3,000 – and then the candidate would walk away with $27,000, most of which would come from taxpayers.

I like this matching system; it did what it was supposed to do. It gave candidates who raised fewer donations, like Kathryn Garcia, a chance to be competitive if they could activate small donors. But bad actors could abuse it. And it looks like Eric Adams has done just that. Yes, foreign actors probably used taxpayer money to promote their chosen candidate in the hope that they would be turned their backs after the fact.

For the past several years, my campaign has been audited by the New York City Campaign Finance Board to determine whether all donations were properly documented. The truth is, you don’t always have visibility into the people who donate to your campaign. There are thousands of people who do this for different reasons. But when I found out during the campaign that someone was a foreigner, I immediately said, “Oh, you can’t donate. But if you know New York residents, tell them!”

The allegations against Eric Adams are, in some ways, depressingly simple: He liked fancy flights and hotels and allegedly took them. He saw a shortcut to raise money from his friends with foreign passports and allegedly took it. This was not a particularly demanding operation. Instead, it’s the story of a local politician who once favored trade and didn’t realize that some of those things could hasten his downfall if he got a bigger job and a bigger spotlight. One of my friends joked, “He’s not even very good at corruption.”

What now? First, Eric Adams should resign. It is now impossible for him to be an effective mayor who can attract and retain qualified leaders to move the city forward. Who would join this government with him at the helm now?

City Hall staff are reportedly almost understandably busy figuring out what’s next and who might be coming or going. I have spoken to rank-and-file employees who are deeply demoralized. Meanwhile, life continues in a bustling city of 8.3 million residents seeking the best for themselves and their families.

If Eric Adams truly wants the best for the people of New York City, he should resign.

If Adams does not resign, he will lose his bid for re-election next year. Even before these charges were made, his approval rating was historically weak. But this is a year of rudderless authorities and festering problems, a year that the people of New York cannot afford. Things don’t stay the same; They get better or worse, and without leadership it will almost certainly get worse.

Eric Adams’ story is a sad one: from a police officer, to a local official, then to a mayor, and now to a federal defendant. His political career is coming to an end and it’s time for his city to move on.

Andrew Yang is a businessman, lawyer, philanthropist and former United States presidential candidate. In July 2022, Yang joined Democrats, Republicans and Independents in forming the new Forward Party to give Americans more choices in our democracy.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.