For Mayor Eric Adams, it’s all in the family — or in a tight-knit group of chosen family and friends that dates back decades.
The FBI’s highly unusual raids on the homes of many of those in Adams’ inner circle highlight just how many family ties exist at the upper reaches of city government, particularly with NYPD links.
Caught up in the federal probe: the three Banks family brothers — David (the schools Chancellor), Phillip (deputy mayor) and Terence — whose father was one of Adams’ lieutenants when he served as an NYPD captain.
Then there’s the Caban family, including police commissioner Edward, who resigned Thursday, and his identical twin brother James. Their father goes way back with Adams, when in the 1990s they both ran allied fraternal groups for Hispanic and Black NYPD officers.
Here’s what to know about the familial circles around the mayor, and how some relate to the ongoing federal investigations:
The Banks Brothers
Last week, the FBI searched the homes of and seized electronic devices from three brothers: Schools Chancellor David Banks, deputy mayor for public safety Philip Banks III and government relations consultant Terence Banks.
Their family goes way back with the mayor. Their father, Philip Jr., was one of Adams’ NYPD lieutenants when he served as a captain before his retirement in 2006. On Monday during his weekly press briefing, the mayor described the elder Banks as “a mentor,” noting that he’s “known the Banks family for years.”
Philip and David were two of Adams’ first mayoral appointments and sit at the highest levels of his administration. The mayor’s ties to Philip were so strong that Adams bypassed the fact that Banks had left the top levels of the NYPD after being named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a cop bribery case. The feds alleged Banks got a $20,000 “gift” from a corrupt Brooklyn businessman seeking favors from the police and had $300,000 he didn’t report to the IRS and whose source was not explained.
The Banks connection extends even farther: Sheena Wright, the mayor’s first deputy mayor, is also Banks’ domestic partner. Her electronic devices were also seized by the FBI last week as part of the probe by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
Both Wright and Philip Banks have sweeping powers within the administration. As first deputy mayor, Wright sits near the top of the ladder, responsible for overseeing most city agencies — including the budget office, public housing authority, social services, sanitation and more — while Banks’ role as deputy mayor for public safety gives him control over the FDNY, Department of Correction, the probation department and the Office of Emergency Management. He’s also informally expanded his reach to include the NYPD.
Terence Banks was a longtime MTA subway operations supervisor who was feted by Adams and other elected officials upon his retirement from that job last year, including with special proclamations from Brooklyn Democratic County Leader Rodneyse Bichotte and Councilmember Farah Louis. He had by then created a government relations firm, The Pearl Alliance, which touted clients on its website that sought business with city government. Terence Banks is, however, not a registered lobbyist.
On Monday the mayor said he had not met with Terence Banks about his clients “at City Hall,” but did not elaborate.
The Cabans
Federal agents also searched the home of now former NYPD Commissioner Caban and seized his electronic devices, as part of a sweep that also took devices from NYPD officers in Manhattan and Queens.
His ties to Adams date back decades via his father, Juan Caban, who served as president of the NYPD Hispanic Society representing Hispanic officers in the 1990s. At the time, Adams ran 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, a fraternal group representing Black officers. The two organizations had a lot in common and, at times, teamed up to criticize the department’s lack of effort to recruit minority cops.
Juan Caban has five sons. One of Edward’s brothers (and his identical twin), James, a former sergeant in the NYPD, also had his home searched last week by the FBI.
James was drummed out of the department after he was charged with arranging to arrest a cabby who’d tried to return a purse his wife had left in his taxi. Caban claimed the cabby took $100 from the purse, but that was found to be false, and, after a trial in 2000, he was convicted of falsifying business records and official misconduct.
Edward Caban was once an officer supervised by another close pal of Adams, Dwayne Montgomery, then a sergeant in the NYPD. Montgomery recently pleaded guilty in a conspiracy to steer tens of thousands of dollars in illegal “straw” donations to the Mayor’s 2021 campaign.
There’s no evidence a third Caban brother, Richard, has been contacted by the FBI, but he has drawn attention in his role as owner of a Bronx nightspot, Con Sofrito, that was shut down after ignoring city inspectors’ violations over an outdoor space deemed unsafe. Con Sofrito was a favorite of Mayor Adams, who celebrated his birthday there last year.
The Mayor’s Family and Chosen Family
Adams has made sure members of his own family have a place in his administration. His brother Bernard, a former cop, served as a “special assistant” to the mayor — getting paid $1 a year after the city ethics board barred the mayor from paying his brother a planned $210,000 salary. And his sister-in-law, Sharon Adams, got a $150,000-a-year gig in the Department of Education, THE CITY previously reported.
Many people in the mayor’s inner circle are his chosen family, made up of loyal friends from long ago, such as Lisa White, a former a 911 operator who got a $241,000-a-year gig as an NYPD deputy commissioner. Adams claimed her address as a residence when running for office.
A prominent figure with a wide-ranging role in helping Adams run the city is Timothy Pearson, a former NYPD cop who’s said to be among the mayor’s closest friends, dating back to when both were serving in management positions in the NYPD — Pearson as an inspector, Adams as a captain.
Adams appointed him to be a senior mayoral aide in May 2022, hiring him through the city Economic Development Corporation — an arrangement that allowed Pearson to keep collecting his police department pension.
Pearson is currently facing four lawsuits accusing him of sexual harassment and retaliation, and two inquiries by the city Department of Investigation. He also had his home searched and his devices seized by federal agents last week.
In one of the lawsuits, a former top NYPD chief, Miltiadis Marmara, describes his interactions with the mayor’s brother Bernard. Maramara said when he notified Bernard Adams about accusations that Pearson was sexually harassing female staffers, Adams dismissed him, stating, “That’s just Tim being Tim.”
And another top aide — perhaps the mayor’s closest ally — also has ties to the mayor’s days as a cop. Ingrid Lewis-Martin, his chief advisor, is married to Glen Martin, who was in the police academy with Adams and became one of his closest friends.
She’s been with Adams for years, serving as a top aide when he was a state senator representing Crown Heights, as his top deputy when he was Brooklyn borough president, and as a top advisor on all of his political campaigns.
There’s been no indication that federal authorities have sought evidence from Lewis-Martin. But she, too, has spoken of members of the City Hall circle as family — calling the mayor’s director of Asian affairs, Winnie Greco her “baby sister” when introducing her at a Gracie Mansion event Greco’s mother attended. At the event, she referred to Adams as another sibling in the family: ‘I have the pleasure of introducing Winnie’s mom to her son.”
Greco’s niece, Wai Ying Cheng, was hired by the mayor’s office at a salary of $80,000 and now earns $120,000, according to city records. Greco has also been closely associated with Adams’ son, Jordan Coleman. Documented reported that Coleman traveled with Greco to San Francisco to present a commendation to a family association there. His stay in a taxpayer-funded hotel shelter in Queens where Greco was also living, owned by a major mayoral donor, is under a Department of Investigation review.
Federal agents searched Greco’s two Bronx homes in February, part of an investigation conducted by Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
Ethics Authorities
Adams’ activities brush up against strict city ethics rules that bar using public office to benefit family and associates, with things like city jobs or contracts. It covers spouses, domestic partners, children, parents, siblings, and anyone who has a business or financial relationship with the public servant. The rules are why the city Conflicts of Interest Board told Adams he could not hire his brother.
But enforcing those laws is tough, said Columbia law professor Richard Briffault, former chair of the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, in part because there is no city agency or staff that proactively roots out the wrongdoing.
“It’s not a police force that goes out and does patrol. It’s more like a fire department that responds to alarms,” he said.
In the Adams administration, it’s been clear from the start that the mayor “does seem to have a high level of trust in certain people with whom he’s closely connected,” he said. But whether any of those actions veer into unlawfulness — or whether there is proof — is unknown.
“You should be using your public power for public benefit. It’s wrong to use it for a private benefit for yourself, and then for people with whom you are associated,” he said.
