Photo: John Lamparski/NurPhoto/AP
FBI agents searched the homes of two top members of Mayor Eric Adams’s administration this week in what is reportedly a second federal investigation into City Hall. The City reports that early Wednesday morning, agents conducted simultaneous raids on the homes of Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor, and Phil Banks, the deputy mayor.
Sources told The City that officials arrived at Banks’s Hollis, Queens, home and Wright’s Manhattan residence in Harlem and confiscated their electronic devices, including a laptop and cell phones. The New York Times reports that the searches were conducted by Manhattan federal prosecutors in a separate investigation from that office’s ongoing inquiry into Adams’s 2021 mayoral campaign, which revolves around links to Turkey.
Banks is a former member of the NYPD who rose to the role of department chief before stepping down in 2014. Wright has served in Adams’s administration since its earliest days, working first as the deputy mayor for strategic operations before being elevated to first deputy mayor in 2022. Before her time at City Hall, she served as the president and CEO of United Way of New York City, the first woman to hold that position. Wright and Banks also have a personal connection: She is the fiancée of his brother, New York City Schools chancellor David Banks. Wright lives with David Banks, and it’s unclear if he was also a subject of the search.
Lisa Zornberg, the mayor’s chief counsel said in a statement, “Investigators have not indicated to us the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation. As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has repeatedly made clear that all members of the team need to follow the law.”
News of Wednesday’s raids comes just weeks after Adams and his campaign committee were served with grand-jury subpoenas in connection with the federal government’s ongoing inquiry into his 2021 mayoral campaign and its ties to Turkey. Specifically, prosecutors are said to be looking into whether Adams’s campaign conspired with the Turkish government to direct illegal foreign donations into its coffers. They’re also reportedly investigating whether Adams, who has long boasted of his relationship with Turkey and the Turkish community, received free flight upgrades while traveling on Turkish Airlines.
That investigation first became public knowledge after the FBI raided the home of Brianna Suggs, a top fundraiser for Adams, last November. On the same day, the agency raided the home of Rana Abbasova, another City Hall aide who worked in the mayor’s office on international affairs. (Abbasova is now cooperating with authorities.) Last November, Adams himself was stopped on the street by FBI agents who had a search warrant for his electronic devices which were seized and later returned to him.
In February, FBI agents also raided the homes of Winnie Greco, Adams’s director of Asian affairs, as well as the New World Mall in Queens, where Greco hosted several campaign for Adams when she worked as a fundraiser for his mayoral campaign. Greco was temporarily put on leave, but has since returned to work for City Hall. Adams and his staff members have yet to be officially implicated in any wrongdoing.
These legal entanglements have swirled around Adams and his administration as he is set to run for reelection next year. Scott Stringer, the former comptroller and one of several Democrats who plan primary the mayor, weighed in on the news Thursday.
“Eric Adams ran on curbing chaos and disorder, yet there is nothing more chaotic than a mayor distracted by his inner circle getting raided by the feds. You can’t clean up this city’s problems when your own house is a mess,” he said on X.
This is a developing story. Check back for further updates.
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