Eric Adams, a retired police captain who was elected as New York City’s 110th mayor nearly three years ago on a promise to rein in crime, has been indicted in a federal corruption investigation, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The indictment remained sealed on Wednesday night, and it was unclear what charge or charges Mr. Adams will face. But the federal investigation has focused at least in part on whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations.

When the indictment is made public, Mr. Adams, a Democrat, will become the first New York City mayor to face a federal charge while in office. It was not clear when he will surrender to the authorities. Federal prosecutors were expected to announce more details on Thursday.

The indictment promised to reverberate across the nation’s largest city and beyond, plunging Mr. Adams’s embattled administration further into chaos just months before he is set to face challengers in a hotly contested mayoral primary.

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And, if it contains allegations of conspiring to commit crimes with foreign nationals, it will have landed on the same week that the city was playing host to leaders from across the world at the United Nations General Assembly, including Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mr. Adams struck a defiant tone in a video statement issued Wednesday, insisting that he had done nothing wrong.

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