BROOKLYN — A Manhattan housewife who tried to pay an undercover cop with rare stamps to kill her unemployed husband thought he was hiding money from her, prosecutors said.
Elena Sava Adams, 57, who was arraigned Friday on charges of conspiracy and criminal solicitation, gave the faux hit man over $10,000 in rare German stamps and jewelry to mow down Irving Adams, 66, in a car as he crossed the street in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Feldman told the judge.
She explained to the undercover cop that her plan "would look legitimate, just like an accident," said Feldman. She could then collect on his life insurance policy, cops said.
Elena Adams planned to have dinner with her husband near the intersection of Avenue Z and East 13th Street, then lead him across the road where the hit man would run over him, cops and prosecutors said. Elena Adams chose that area because there was little foot traffic and few surveillance cameras, Feldman said.
When she handed over the stamps and jewels the prosecutor said she told the cop, "If I'm lucky, you'll get extra."
Investigators captured on audio and video recording of the set up on a wire, Feldman said.
The husband, who had lost his job as the chief compliance officer for Israel Discount Bank of New York several years ago, was an "odd" presence around the couple's Battery Park City apartment, a neighbor said Thursday night.
He said that Irving Adams walked around the hallways in his underwear and seemed to consist on a diet of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and pizza.
But the neighbor, who asked that his name not be used, said the couple seemed financially solid.
They took regular vacations and had a second house in Romania, where Elena Adams is from.
At the court appearance, she appeared disheveled and visibly upset, breathing heavily throughout the hearing.
Because of her ties abroad, the judge ordered her held without bail until her next appearance on Sept. 4. He also forbid her from contact her husband.
She faces 8 to 25 years in prison if convicted.
Irving Adams declined to comment.
