New York

Tracking Investigations In Eric Adams’s Orbit

Published

1 year 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

$140,000 a Year in Manhattan: Pizza Is a Treat, and Old Toys Are New

Published

4 days ago

January 24, 2026

Press Room

0,000 a Year in Manhattan: Pizza Is a Treat, and Old Toys Are New

How can people possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet? It’s a question New Yorkers hear a lot, often delivered with a mix of awe, pity and confusion.

We surveyed hundreds of New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save. We found that many people — rich, poor or somewhere in between — live life as a series of small calculations that add up to one big question: What makes living in New York worth it?

Kerry McAuliffe weighs that question every time she looks up the cost of summer camp for one of her three children or opens a stuffed closet in her Morningside Heights apartment, close to Columbia University in Manhattan, and has a basketball fall on her head.

“We’re in a place where it’s very tight,” Ms. McAuliffe said. Her family of five lives on $140,000 a year.

Ms. McAuliffe and her husband both grew up in suburbs outside New York City, and say they are dedicated to staying in the city long term. Anna Watts for The New York Times

Their housing solution: become the super

The family’s monthly rent — $2,700 for their three-bedroom apartment — is their biggest expense, as it is for most New Yorkers. But they have a hack to make their housing more affordable: Ms. McAuliffe’s husband, Jake Kassman, is the superintendent for their building and the one next door.

The couple’s three children are 7, 3 and 1. For now, at least, they all happily eat broccoli. Anna Watts for The New York Times

He took on the super job a few years ago, after the couple’s first child was born and the family realized they wouldn’t be able to live only on Mr. Kassman’s roughly $110,000 salary as an M.R.I. technician at Columbia University’s medical center. Ms. McAuliffe had left her job in education around the same time, because the cost of child care would have canceled out her paycheck.

There are perks: The family now takes in an extra $30,000 or so a year, including a few months of free rent, and their landlord recently let them knock down a wall to take over an extra bedroom in a vacant unit next door.

‘Someone gets financial aid. Why not you?’

Ms. McAuliffe and Mr. Kassman spend much of their free time plotting how to provide their children with as many opportunities as they can, while weighing the cost of school and activities.

The family had never seriously considered private school until a chance meeting on a playground a few years ago. Ms. McAuliffe was speaking with a neighbor who encouraged her to apply for financial aid, asking: “Someone gets financial aid. Why not you?”

The family applied to the nearby Cathedral School, which costs about $65,000 a year, and received a package that would cover more than half the cost for their daughter.

The couple’s eldest has started to ask about the after-school activities and camps that many of her friends go to. The couple splurged on a week of theater camp, which cost $1,000, and a season of swim team at the local pool, which runs $800, for her.

But Ms. McAuliffe feels a pang of guilt whenever she signs her daughter up for an activity, because she can’t afford classes for the younger children, both boys.

“One day we’ll have to do a reckoning of where the funds go,” she said. “My son is like, ‘Can I do swim team?’ And I’m like, ‘We’ll see.’”

They cut back on babysitting but splurge for pizza night

Since nearly all of the family’s budget goes to rent and education, Ms. McAuliffe and Mr. Kassman have made peace with the fact that the frequent nights out and elaborate birthday parties that other families can afford are not part of their lives.

The couple gets a babysitter only about three times a year, so they can go out to dinner for each of their birthdays and their anniversary. They know it would be good for them to go out on their own more. But, Ms. McAuliffe said, “I’m trying to come to terms with the idea that this is a chapter in life, and hopefully we’ll be able to grow old together and talk about those things later.”

The family’s weekly treat is Friday night pizza delivery, which usually costs $25.

For the rest of the week, Ms. McAuliffe tries to keep the weekly grocery bill to about $300. She relies on quesadillas and pasta to feed the whole family, and is relieved that all three kids happily eat broccoli. But she worries about how much she’ll have to stock her fridge once she has two preteen boys in the house.

On weekends, the family mostly sticks to the city’s bounty of free parks and playgrounds.

The couple has a car, which they use to go visit family on Long Island. They sometimes take day trips upstate, to a farm or a hike, but usually drive home at night to avoid paying for an Airbnb. Just the cost of gas, an activity and a meal for the day usually runs them about $300.

Their Christmas strategy: Old toys are new

For Christmas, Ms. McAuliffe wrapped the open puzzles and toys that her oldest child had grown out of to make them look like new gifts for her younger children.

Instead of birthday parties where the whole class is invited, Ms. McAuliffe has each of her children pick a special activity, like a trip to the Statue of Liberty, that they can attend with a friend.

The family’s sacrosanct splurge is a short summer vacation, usually four nights, somewhere within driving distance of the city, which typically costs about $3,000.

That tradition helps the couple feel better about skipping so much of what their peers can afford. None of her children has ever been on an airplane, and she doesn’t expect that to change soon.

Ms. McAuliffe recently spoke with a friend who grew up in New York but left the city because of the cost of living. He asked her why she was staying, when life could be so much easier somewhere else.

“I just like being in New York,” Ms. McAuliffe said. “There’s so much to do the second you step outside your door.”

We want to hear from you about how you afford life in one of the most expensive cities in the world. We’re looking to speak with people of all income ranges, with all kinds of living situations and professions.

New York

Video: Deer Sets Off Burglar Alarm in a New York Bank

Published

5 days ago

January 23, 2026

Press Room

Video: Deer Sets Off Burglar Alarm in a New York Bank

new video loaded: Deer Sets Off Burglar Alarm in a New York Bank

Police officers on Long Island responded to an alarm at a bank to find that the culprit was a deer that had crashed through a window.

By Axel Boada

January 23, 2026

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