When federal agents seized the phones of some of New York City’s highest-ranking officials in early September, the administration of Mayor Eric Adams, already reeling from other legal problems, was further destabilized.
The agents took the phones of the city’s police commissioner, the first deputy mayor, the schools chancellor and others. They also searched the home and seized the phone of a consultant, who is a brother of the schools chancellor and another of Mr. Adams’s deputy mayors.
The flurry of activity led to the resignation of the police commissioner, Edward A. Caban, and the mayor’s chief counsel, Lisa Zornberg, who left the administration after Mr. Adams resisted her advice.
Weeks later, the schools chancellor, David C. Banks, announced that he would step down by the end of the year.
The seizures and home search were separate from an additional corruption inquiry that has been focused at least in part on whether the mayor and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal donations during the 2021 election. Investigators have also sought information related to the mayor’s ties to five other countries.
Here is what we know about the federal investigations swirling around the Adams administration:
Which officials are embroiled in the inquiries?
The seizures, subpoenas and home search executed by federal agents on Sept. 4 focused on five people in Mr. Adams’s orbit. Neither the mayor nor those people have been accused of any crimes.
Agents seized the phones of the first deputy mayor, Sheena Wright, and her partner, David C. Banks, the schools chancellor. Mr. Banks’s brother, Philip Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety, also received a visit from agents who seized his phones, as did Timothy Pearson, a senior adviser to Mr. Adams and one of his closest confidants.
The investigators also searched the home of a consultant, Terence Banks, a third Banks brother who formed a government and community relations company aimed at closing the gap “between New York’s intricate infrastructure and political landscape.”
The agents also seized the phones of Mr. Caban, the police commissioner; his chief of staff; a chief in Queens; and two precinct commanders.
When Mr. Caban resigned on Sept. 12, the mayor appointed Thomas G. Donlon as the Police Department’s interim commissioner. Days later, Mr. Donlon disclosed in a late-night statement that F.B.I. agents had searched his residences. The searches, during which Mr. Donlon said agents had taken “materials” that he had possessed for 20 years, were unrelated to the investigations of the mayor and senior members of his administration, according to two federal officials with knowledge of the matter. The officials said that the materials the agents sought were classified documents.
Over the past year, federal investigators have searched the homes of several other people close to Mr. Adams.
In November, the Brooklyn home of Mr. Adams’s chief fund-raiser at the time, Brianna Suggs, was searched by federal agents as part of the inquiry into whether Mr. Adams and his 2021 election campaign had conspired with the Turkish government.
The same day Mr. Suggs’s home was raided, federal agents also searched the New Jersey homes of Rana Abbasova, a former liaison for Mr. Adams to the Turkish community, and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive who had served on the mayor’s transition team. Ms. Abbasova has turned against the mayor and is now cooperating with the investigation.
In July, federal prosecutors served grand jury subpoenas related to the Turkey investigation to City Hall, the mayor and his campaign. The subpoenas also sought information related to the mayor’s ties to five other countries: Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan. Among other information, the investigators sought records related to tickets to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which Mr. Adams attended.
As part of that investigation, prosecutors sought information related to Reyhan Özgür, the former Turkish consul general in New York whom Mr. Adams has described as a “good friend,” and Arda Sayiner, a self-described brand adviser, influencer and journalist who does business in Turkey.
In a separate federal inquiry led by a different U.S. attorney’s office, two houses in the Bronx owned by Winnie Greco, a close aide to Mr. Adams, were searched in February.
The focus of that investigation remains unclear, but Ms. Greco is a prominent fund-raiser for the mayor’s campaign with close ties to New York’s Chinese community. Mr. Adams appointed her as his director of Asian affairs.
What are the authorities examining?
There appear to be at least four separate inquiries being conducted by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The actions by federal agents in early September appear to be connected to two of the investigations. The precise nature of the inquiries is unclear, but one is focused on the senior City Hall officials and the other on the police commissioner and one of his brothers. Those inquiries are both being conducted by prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
The same office is also conducting the investigation into, among other things, whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations. Mr. Adams has started a legal-defense fund to pay for expenses related to the fund-raising inquiry.
The search of Ms. Greco’s homes was conducted as part of a separate inquiry by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.
How does it all relate to the mayor?
Mr. Adams, who is known for being fiercely loyal to those close to him, has tried to distance himself from the investigations. On several occasions he has said that he is cooperating with the investigations.
Even as the mayor has tried to steady his administration, additional developments have destabilized it. On Sept. 16, two former Fire Department chiefs were arrested and accused by federal prosecutors in Manhattan of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to speed up the fire-safety approval process for building projects across the city.
And Mr. Adams has been directly affected by the investigations swirling around him. Days after the F.B.I. searched Ms. Suggs’s Brooklyn home in November, agents seized phones and other devices from Mr. Adams as he left an event in Manhattan.
Not long after, Mr. Adams was asked at a news conference about his potential for being charged with a crime.
“I cannot tell you how much I start the day with telling my team, ‘We’ve got to follow the law, got to follow the law,’ almost to the point that I am annoying,” he said.
Last year, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, obtained an indictment charging six people, including a retired police inspector who once worked and socialized with Mr. Adams, with conspiring to funnel illegal donations to the mayor’s 2021 campaign.
Eric Ulrich, Mr. Adams’s former buildings commissioner and a senior adviser, was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on 16 felony charges, including conspiracy and taking bribes. He and three others indicted alongside him had helped organize a 2021 fund-raiser for Mr. Adams.
What questions remain?
The full scope of the several investigations remains unclear, as does the exact number of people who have been subpoenaed or contacted for information by investigators. The inquiry into the mayor’s fund-raising and his campaign appears to have been going on the longest.
Officials with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District, which is conducting three of the four investigations, have declined to answer questions. Prosecutors with the Eastern District, which is conducting the fourth, have also declined to answer questions.
Just because the investigations have burst into public view does not mean that indictments are inevitable. Public corruption investigations can take years, and as prosecutors dig, the cases can grow and develop new lines of inquiry. But because such investigations typically have a high burden of proof, they can result in no charges being filed.
In 2017, federal and state prosecutors said they would not bring criminal charges against Mayor Bill de Blasio or his aides after lengthy investigations that also became public.
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