New York

Tracking Investigations In Eric Adams’s Orbit

Published

2 years ago

September 14, 2024

Press Room

Tracking Investigations In Eric Adams’s Orbit

Investigations into Adams and associates

Adams, his campaign and Turkey

Senior City Hall aides and associates

Former police commissioner’s brother

Eric Adams

Timothy Pearson

Philip Banks&nbspIII

David C. Banks

Sheena Wright

Edward A. Caban

Winnie Greco

Brianna Suggs

Eric Ulrich

Rana Abbasova

Raul Pintos

James Caban

Terence Banks

Dwayne Montgomery

Cenk Öcal

Queens precinct commander

Investigations into Adams and associates

Adams, his campaign and Turkey

Senior City Hall aides and associates

Former police commissioner’s brother

Several federal corruption investigations have reached people in the orbit of Mayor Eric Adams of New York, with Mr. Adams and some of the highest-ranking officials in his administration coming under scrutiny.

Officials with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, which is conducting three of the four federal criminal investigations, have declined to answer questions about the scope of the inquiries.

The full scope of the federal investigations is unclear. Neither the mayor nor others who have had their homes searched, their devices seized or information sought from them have been charged with a crime, and it is possible some of those targeted for searches are only witnesses. The city’s Department of Investigation is involved in all four inquiries.

State-level prosecutions and civil cases have also hit the Adams administration.

Here is a closer look at how people with ties to Mr. Adams, who faces re-election next year, are related to the investigations.

Federal inquiry into Adams, his campaign and ties to Turkey

Eric Adams

Mayor

Devices seized and subpoenaed

Brianna Suggs

Former chief fund-raiser

Reassigned after home search and devices seizure

Rana Abbasova

Aide on leave

Cooperating with inquiry after home search

Cenk Öcal

Former Turkish Airlines executive

Home searched

This investigation, by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, appears to be focused in part on whether the Adams 2021 campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations, and whether Mr. Adams pressured the Fire Department to approve a new high-rise Turkish consulate, despite safety concerns.

Last November, the Brooklyn home of Brianna Suggs, Mr. Adams’s chief fund-raiser at the time, was searched by federal agents. Weeks later, he said she would leave the role.

Federal agents also searched the New Jersey homes of Rana Abbasova, an aide in the mayor’s international affairs office and a former liaison to the Turkish community for Mr. Adams, and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on the mayor’s transition team. Ms. Abbasova is cooperating with the investigation.

F.B.I. agents stopped Mr. Adams outside an event in November and seized his electronic devices. In July, prosecutors served a new round of grand jury subpoenas to Mr. Adams, his office and his campaign for a range of materials.

Federal inquiry into ex-police commissioner’s twin brother

Edward A. Caban

Former police commissioner

Resigned after phone seized

Raul Pintos

Chief of staff under Caban

Phone seized

James Caban

Former police officer

Phone seized

Queens precinct commander

Phone seized

Queens precinct commander

Phone seized

At the request of City Hall, Edward A. Caban resigned as police commissioner this week, just days after federal agents seized his phone. Raul Pintos, who served as chief of staff under Mr. Caban, and the commanders of two Queens precincts also had their phones seized.

This investigation, by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, appears to be focused on a nightclub-security business owned by Mr. Caban’s twin brother, James Caban. A former New York City police officer who was fired in 2001, James Caban also had his phone seized.

Lawyers for Edward Caban have said prosecutors told them he was not a target of the investigation.

Federal inquiry into senior City Hall aides and associates

Timothy Pearson

Senior adviser to the mayor

Information sought from

Philip Banks&nbspIII

Deputy mayor for public safety

Phone seized

David C. Banks

Schools chancellor

Phones seized

Sheena Wright

First deputy mayor

Phone seized

Terence Banks

Consultant

Home searched and phone seized

This investigation, by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, appears to center on a possible bribery scheme involving a government-relations consulting company run by Terence Banks, a brother of Philip Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety, and of David C. Banks, the schools chancellor.

Terence Banks also helped raise funds for Mr. Adams’s 2021 campaign and was on his transition committee.

The investigation, which appears to be in the early stages, appears to be focused at least partly on city contracts issued under programs geared toward small companies owned by women and members of minority groups.

This month, federal agents seized the phones of several top City Hall aides: the first deputy mayor, Sheena Wright; David Banks, her partner; and Philip Banks. Investigators also sought information from Timothy Pearson, a senior adviser to Mr. Adams who is one of the mayor’s closest confidants.

A lawyer for Terence Banks said he and his client had been “assured by the government” that Mr. Banks was not the target of the investigation. A lawyer for Philip Banks said his client had done nothing wrong. David Banks said he was cooperating with a federal inquiry, and told reporters his lawyer had been informed that Mr. Banks was “absolutely not a target in whatever this investigation is about.”

Other investigations and legal matters

Winnie Greco

Former campaign fund-raiser

Multiple homes searched

Eric Ulrich

Former buildings commissioner

Charged with taking bribes

Dwayne Montgomery

Former police inspector

Pleaded guilty to conspiracy

Timothy Pearson

Senior adviser to the mayor

The fourth federal investigation, run by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, led to a search in February of homes owned by Winnie Greco, a close aide to Mr. Adams who was then his director of Asian affairs and a prominent campaign fund-raiser.

City officials said at the time that Ms. Greco would be placed on unpaid leave during the inquiry, but the website The City reported in May she had returned to a government job. The prosecutors’ office declined to answer questions.

Last year, Eric Ulrich, a one-time Department of Buildings commissioner appointed to the post by Mr. Adams, was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on 16 felonies, including conspiracy and taking bribes. He had previously resigned after news of the investigation became public. According to court records, Mr. Ulrich has pleaded not guilty.

In February, a retired police inspector, Dwayne Montgomery, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor state charges in Manhattan, admitting that he had directed so-called straw donors — people who make campaign donations with someone else’s money — to contribute to the mayor’s 2021 campaign.

Mr. Pearson also faces several lawsuits involving sexual harassment accusations. A lawyer representing him denied wrongdoing on his behalf. In recent days, two security guards, whom Mr. Pearson was seen physically attacking at a Midtown migrant shelter last fall, said that they planned to sue him and the city for false arrest and malicious prosecution. A lawyer representing him had not responded for comment.

Earlier this year, a woman sued Mr. Adams, accusing him of asking for oral sex in exchange for career help in 1993 and sexually assaulting her when she refused. Mr. Adams has denied assaulting the woman.

New York

Video: We Analyzed the Deadly Crash at LaGuardia

Published

2 days ago

March 28, 2026

Press Room

Video: We Analyzed the Deadly Crash at LaGuardia

new video loaded: We Analyzed the Deadly Crash at LaGuardia

Our graphics reporter Lazaro Gamio breaks down the second-by-second analysis leading up to the deadly plane crash at LaGuardia Airport.

By Lazaro Gamio, Coleman Lowndes and James Surdam

March 27, 2026

New York

Video: LaGuardia Crash Survivors Recount Ordeal

Published

5 days ago

March 25, 2026

Press Room

Video: LaGuardia Crash Survivors Recount Ordeal

“I just thought, please don’t let this be how my life ends. I’m not ready to die. When we landed, it was a very rough landing. Like we landed and the plane jolted back up, and that caught a lot of passengers off guard. Everyone kind of like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then you hear the pilot braking, and it was like just this grinding sound.” “Everybody was shocked everywhere. There was — there’s people screaming. The plane just veered off course. I mean, it was just — it all happened so quickly, but it all felt just like a very dire situation.” “Oh, God. Oh my goodness. That’s crazy.” “People were bleeding from their nose, cuts and scrapes. I saw black eyes, all different types of facial contusions, bruising and bleeding. I was sitting by the exit door, and I opened the exit door. There was a sense of camaraderie amongst the survivors. Nobody was pushing, shoving, ‘I got to get out first.’” “The plane actually tipped back as we were leaving, as people were getting off the plane. That was when the nose kind of fell off the front of the plane, and the whole plane kind of went up to what we’d seen in all the pictures of the plane’s nose in the air.” And there was no slide when we got out. A lot of us were jumping off of the airplane wing to get down. And when I got out and I saw that the front of the plane, how destroyed it was, I just was — I was in shock.” “It was only really when I was outside of the plane, looking back at the plane, and I had seen what had happened to the cockpit, and then just like this sense of dread overcame me, where I was just like, wow, a lot of people might have just been pretty badly hurt.” “I’m grateful to the pilots who were so courageous and brave, and acted swiftly, and they saved our lives. And if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to come home to my family. I’m forever indebted to them. They’re my heroes.”