A few months before New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, his administration hired an expatriate supporter of the left-wing South American leader — an academic and activist involved in a group tied to the sprawling global influence network of China-allied tech mogul Neville “Roy” Singham.

Hired in June as a deputy commissioner for international affairs focused on “municipal strategy and innovation,” Gianpaolo Baiocchi in July brought the organization Defend Democracy in Brazil (DDB) into his city office for a formal meeting to “strengthen ties of the Brazilian community in New York against ICE and to protect Brazil’s sovereignty.” 

The summit, along with Baiocchi’s ascent into a key role in coordinating city contact with foreign consulates and world leaders, marked the culmination of years of work that the former New York University sociology professor had done as a member of DDB — which has included representing the group on Turkish and Iranian state television — and with its partners.

Those partners include multiple groups at the center of federal and congressional investigations into Singham, a Shanghai-based Marxist software magnate, and his support for the interests and narratives of Beijing, Moscow and Tehran: the People’s Forum, CODE PINK and the Party for Socialism and Liberation and its affiliate the ANSWER Coalition. 

A 2025 report from The George Washington University identified these groups — though not DDB itself — as elements of a “covert funding network supporting extremist organizations in the U.S.”

Together, they have formed the core of multiple high-profile demonstrations against Israel, including a celebratory rally in Times Square a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks that drew the now-mayor’s rebuke.

Mamdani’s team disregarded questions from Jewish Insider about Baiocchi’s associations with the Singham network, which include at least one foreign trip with other senior members of the administration. Mamdani’s office would also not answer which meetings between the mayor, his office and foreign figures he was personally involved in, though it acknowledged making such arrangements was the core function of the international affairs office. DDB did not respond to queries JI sent for this story.

Social media accounts for DDB, launched a decade ago to support the then-embattled Lula da Silva and his Workers Party, shows it has for years cooperated and coordinated around protest and even electoral activity with CODE PINK and the PSL/ANSWER. The group’s co-founder works as a Portuguese language instructor at the People’s Forum, which DDB has fundraised for and called “a HOME for us.”

DDB’s Instagram profile is rife with images of events it has run or participated in with Singham network affiliates at the People’s Forum’s Manhattan headquarters, including a “Benefit Concert for Gaza” held in March. Baiocchi himself has participated in at least two gatherings at the People’s Forum, the most recent recorded in 2023.

That same year, DDB arranged a “learning delegation” that sent “35 community leaders and organizers” to the Latin American nation, a trip that involved multiple meetings from another Singham-tied organization: the Landless Workers Movement, or MST, abbreviated for its name in Portuguese. The MST is part of Singham’s International People’s Assembly, an umbrella group of his left-wing allies across the planet, and the Brazilian organization coordinates closely with organizations the financier underwrites.

The trip included an extended stay at the MST’s Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes, an organization that tax records show has received direct funding from the People’s Support Foundation Limited, an entity that The New York Times and other outlets have identified as one of Singham’s key vessels for bankrolling his empire of influence. DDB’s website describes the organization as “active members of the National Coordination of the Friends of the MST,” a U.S.-based group that raises awareness and support for the Brazilian organization.

The 2023 trip’s planners and participants included not just Baiocchi himself but Ana Maria Archila, now commissioner of Mamdani’s Office of International Affairs and Baiocchi’s boss. Archila, long a prominent left-wing activist, gained notoriety in early July for agreeing to meet with Iran’s U.N. ambassador before the State Department blocked the rendezvous. 

Also attending the junket was Cea Weaver, now director of the newly created Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

The Mamdani administration did not confirm or deny any awareness of this trip, but maintained Baiocchi was hired through a regular process and for his academic expertise in urban affairs. The professor previously served on the mayor’s transition team, as part of a new “committee on community organizing.” Baiocchi, who founded the school’s Urban Democracy Lab, was arrested in 2024 for his participation in an anti-Israel encampment.

A few months after the excursion’s end, Baiocchi co-signed a note on DDB’s website that hailed the trip as one of the year’s successes — along with protests organized with CODE PINK, the People’s Forum and PSL/ANSWER, including joint actions, “as part of the #shutitdown4Palestine coalition.”

Among the organizations Baiocchi brought into his new city office along with DDB after joining Mamdani’s administration was a sister organization to the MST, the MTST.

Foreign governments and influence operations have targeted New York City Hall in the past: federal prosecutors indicted Mamdani’s Gracie Mansion predecessor, Eric Adams, for allegedly accepting bribes from the Turkish government and its agents. Earlier this year, JI discovered that nearly half the New York City Council had signed onto a pro-Cuba relief campaign run through the People’s Forum.

Mamdani himself has had direct contact with persons tied to Singham: namely, the Maoist tycoon’s niece, whom the future mayor credited on the campaign trail with devising his “fast and free buses” campaign pledge.