For more than a year, federal agents have been circling around Mayor Eric Adams of New York City and his campaign, and more recently, they have seized phones and sought information from the highest-ranking members of his administration.
The federal prosecutor’s office that is conducting three of the four inquiries, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, has declined to answer questions about the scope of the investigations and whether they will conclude before Mr. Adams faces a hotly contested Democratic primary next year.
The inquiry that appears to have been going on the longest is the one involving Mr. Adams himself, and whether he and his campaign conspired to receive illegal campaign contributions from a foreign country.
Here’s what we know about the four investigations embroiling his administration:
The mayor and Turkey
The investigation into Mr. Adams and his campaign fund-raising spilled into public view when federal agents searched the home of his chief fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs, last November. According to a search warrant, that inquiry is examining whether the campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations. Federal prosecutors were also investigating whether the mayor pressured the Fire Department to sign off on the opening of a high-rise consulate building for the Turkish government and whether he accepted pricey airfare upgrades from Turkish Airlines, which is owned in part by the Turkish government.
The police commissioner and his twin brother
Federal agents last week seized the phone of Edward A. Caban, New York’s police commissioner, who resigned amid pressure from the Adams administration. As with the other investigations, the full scope of the inquiry is unclear, but it has focused at least in part on a nightclub security business owned by the commissioner’s twin brother, James Caban. A former police officer, James Caban was fired from the department in 2001. He has also had his phone seized, according a person with knowledge of the matter.
The bribery and corruption inquiry
A second federal investigation is examining a possible bribery scheme involving city contracts and a consulting firm run by the brother of the schools chancellor and the deputy mayor for public safety, two top officials in the Adams administration. Federal agents seized phones from the consultant, Terence Banks, and his older brothers, Schools Chancellor David C. Banks and the deputy mayor for public safety, Philip B. Banks III. Some of the clients of Terence Banks’s consulting firm, The Pearl Alliance, have received contracts with agencies his brothers oversee.
All three of the above investigations are being overseen by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
The Asian affairs liaison
A fourth inquiry is being conducted by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. That investigation has involved the mayor’s special adviser and director of Asian affairs, Winnie Greco, whose homes were raided earlier this year. Ms. Greco was a prominent fund-raiser for Mr. Adams during his mayoral campaign and has close ties to the Chinese community in New York City.
The focus of that investigation is also unclear, but it is being conducted by a prosecutor’s office that has brought several high-profile cases in recent years against people accused of acting illegally on behalf of the Chinese government.
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