Cost of Corruption: Tens of Millions in Salary for Employees Involved in NYC Mayor’s Bribery Investigation

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently earned a rather ignominious distinction: he became the first sitting NYC mayor to be indicted when he was charged in late September with five counts of bribery, wire fraud and soliciting illegal foreign donations.

There are a dozen other individuals somehow involved in various angles of the investigation, and New York City taxpayers paid them more than $3 million worth of salary in 2023. Over the course of a decade, taxpayers invested $13.34 million in salary as they advanced to leadership ranks. For their trouble, New Yorkers got a complex web of alleged criminal behavior and mutual favors among Adams associates, friends and family.

BACKGROUND

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, described the charges against Mayor Adams as such:

Adams pleaded not guilty to all charges and has maintained his innocence, even suggesting prosecutors in his case be sanctioned. He claims they demonstrated “appalling disregard” for his rights. (Adams’ lawyers allege prosecutors leaked grand jury material and other sensitive information in “brazen violations” of the rules.)

While the FBI has been investigating many members of his administration in recent months, Adams’ September indictment had a domino effect, with eight people resigning or being fired within a few weeks, and more expected to come.

Additional members of his mayoral transition team and campaign fundraising team are also being questioned by investigators, as are former Adams employees.

Collectively, the mayor and 13 other city employees have been swept up in the investigation(s) — either by being raided by the FBI, having their phones and other items seized by the FBI, getting subpoenaed, or — like Adams himself — indicted.

A DECADE OF TAXPAYER INVESTMENT

Here’s a breakdown of where things stand with each employee, how they are involved with the investigations, and what they earned in 2023. Then the kicker: take a look at what taxpayers have sunk into their collective salaries over the course of a decade!

NEPOTISM IS THE NAME OF THE GAME

Their potential involvement in the investigations of Adams’ alleged crimes shouldn’t be surprising, as many are close to Adams and got their jobs from him — being what critics have called “shady appointees.”

In 2022, Adams appointed Schools Chancellor David Banks, a longtime ally. In turn, Banks promoted Tracey Collins, Adams’ girlfriend, to a top job at the Department of Education —  months after Adams hired Banks’ girlfriend, Sheena Wright, as a deputy mayor, The New York Post reported. It’s a scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours deal but with hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

In the investigation, the FBI raided the home of Banks and Wright, the two highest paid Adams officials embroiled in the investigation, who earned a collective $638,346 last year. Banks initially said he would step down at the end of the year but recently did so on October 16.

Wright is also being forced out, The New York Post reported.

SIDENOTE: Banks and Wright married the day after Adams appeared in court to face charges, which “prompted murmurs that the pair married to claim legal ‘spousal privilege,’ or the right of a wedded couple to decline to testify against each other.”

But legal experts they interviewed said that privilege is unlikely to help the couple “and could even backfire, opening them up to an obstruction-of-justice charge if the feds find evidence they wed to avoid testifying.”

Meanwhile, Adams’ girlfriend, Collins, made $221,597 last year — an almost $50,000 pay raise — after the 2022 promotion by Banks.

She joined the mayor on $45,000 worth of expensive trips to India, Hungary, Turkey, Jordan, Oman and Ghana starting in 2016, prosecutors allege. Adams is accused of accepting travel perks worth up to $123,000 and she is named as his domestic partner in the indictment.

A DAY IN THE LIFE: A New York Times writer recently spent a day living like the mayor, documented in a feature called “Lie-Flat Seats and Chilled Champagne: Testing Eric Adams’ Upgrade Life.”

All city officials and high-level employees must disclose any potential conflicts of interest to the NYC Conflicts of Interest Board, which Adams did not do.

On top of the travel perks, Collins allegedly hasn’t shown up for work in almost one year, according to a former DOE employee who filed complaints about her with the DOE ethics officer, the Conflicts of Interest Board, the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools, and the city Department of Investigation.

The employee alleged Collins rarely has been seen in the office since November 2023, and her work calendar has been empty.

Adding injury to insult, Collins recently switched her job to be the senior adviser to Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the current deputy chancellor of family and community engagement, who took over for Banks when he leaves as schools chancellor.

Asked about this, Adams said “Tracey was a phenomenal educator for over 30-something years. There was a job vacancy. She filed for it. Being the significant other of the mayor should not stop your track.”

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY

The nepotism didn’t stop there. The Adams and the Banks families are all over the city.

Adams’ sister-in-law Sharon — wife of his brother Bernard — also landed a job as a “strategic initiative specialist” in the Education Department last year, making $150,000-a-year, more than double her prior pay as a school teacher in Richmond Public Schools in Virginia, The City reported.

This came after Adams’ hired his brother as senior advisor for mayoral security and paid him $1 because his initial attempt to first pay him $242,000, then $210,000 were stopped by city rules that bar public officials from using their positions to benefit close relatives, defined as spouses, domestic partners, children, parents and siblings. It says nothing about in-laws.

Neither Adams’ brother nor his sister-in-law are reported to have been questioned by the FBI or any other investigators.

MORE BANKS WHERE THAT CAME FROM

Mayor Adam’s longtime ally Banks also has further family ties involved. His brother Philip Banks III ($251,982), the deputy mayor for public safety, had his home searched by the FBI and phone seized. This Banks brother was also involved in a 2018 NYPD corruption scandal, wherein the former chief of department resigned from that position after he was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a bribery case.

Philip also resigned in this recent wave.

The FBI wasn’t done though. The New York Times reports they searched the home and seized the phone of a third Banks brother – Terence, a consultant and former MTA official. The youngest Bank had been “named as one of hundreds of unpaid appointees to Mr. Adams’s transition team,” according to the Times. In 2022, he founded Pearl Alliance and “set out to remake himself as a consultant with deep and obvious connections to some of the most powerful people in City Hall. Soon, he had signed up a number of clients, including some with business before the agencies that his brothers oversaw.”

NYPD BLUES

Philip Banks isn’t the only alleged problem when it comes to public safety in the city.

Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned after the FBI searched his home and seized his phone amid a federal investigation into its nightclub enforcement. His twin brother, James, owns a nightclub security business, and had his phone seized in the investigation.

That was after Shamel Kelly, a former Brooklyn bar owner and whistleblower whose bar had been raided almost weekly, claimed there was a racket when it came keeping the nightlife safe. Kelly claimed Ray Martin, former associate director for Adams’ Office of Entertainment and Nightlife, told him the frequent raids would end if he paid James Caban — the police commissioner’s brother — a fee!

Tom Donlon, the interim police commissioner who replaced Caban, was himself raided by the feds a week after taking office. He claimed the agents “took materials that came into my possession approximately 20 years ago and are unrelated to my work with the New York City Police Department.”

Donlon was New York’s Director of the Office of Homeland Security, ran the FBI’s National Threat Center, and the FBI/NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force. At the time of publication, Donlon was expected to announce his resignation in the coming days.

THE PEARSONS

Tim Pearson is another individual tied to public safety who now finds himself under investigation. He’s a former NYPD inspector and senior adviser to Adams. Like the others, he had cell phones subpoenaed and recently resigned. He had already been under investigation by the city Department of Investigation.

Pearson is also alleged to have sexually harassed and retaliated against female colleagues, according to no fewer than FOUR lawsuits. 

He worked with Adams in the NYPD and, until his resignation, worked for the city’s Economic Development Corporation, collecting a $242,000 salary. He was also collecting an almost $250,000 salary at the same time from Resorts World Casino, and while he left there shortly thereafter, he continued to collect his NYPD pension.

In October 2023, Pearson allegedly got into a fight at a shelter in Manhattan while trying to enter without identifying himself. He is now being sued for the incident.

His nephew, Larry Pearson Jr, 30, a cop, was transferred to the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau after less than two years on the job and promoted to detective six months ago — after making only two arrests in his four years on the job, The NY Daily News reported.

Larry Jr.’s father, Larry Pearson Sr., is a retired NYPD lieutenant and Tim’s brother.

How Larry Jr. moved so quickly through the ranks is unclear. But Tim Pearson didn’t disclose the relationship on required disclosure forms — instead, when asked if he had any relatives working for city government, he answered no in 2022 and 2023.

Multiple police sources told The Daily News that Larry Pearson Jr.’s “career trajectory is unusual and raises questions about whether his family ties played a role.” Weeks later, he was placed on desk duty, a sort of probation for police.

THE REST OF THE GANG

**Sheriff Anthony Miranda, Adams’ longtime friend since their NYPD days and an Adams’ appointee, oversees the city’s enforcement of unlicensed cannabis shops, among other things, is also the subject of an investigation, Politico reported.

The NYC Department of Investigation is looking into the sheriff’s office, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York — who indicted Adams — was looking into Miranda as recently as last year.

The DOI seized cash from the sheriff’s office, looking into whether the agency improperly took money from cannabis stores that it raided, closed and padlocked, The New York Times reported.

SIDENOTE: The NYC Deputy Sheriffs’ Association has called on Miranda to resign for creating a “hostile work environment” that has led to an exodus of rank-and-file members.

**Rana Abbasova, is an Azerbaijan native who performed advanced planning and logistics for mayoral events as part of her role, was Adams’ aid and liaison to Turkey. She is reported to be cooperating with the feds, after being accused of deleting text messages when the FBI came calling, prosecutors allege. She was fired allegedly for deleting text messages.

**Mohammed Bahi, Adams’ special assistant, is the only other person besides Adams who was indicted this year, with charges of witness tampering and obstruction of justice, allegedly for obstructing the investigation into Adams’ campaign donations.

**Frank Carone. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Brooklyn was subpoenaed to provide information about business dealings between Carone — formerly Adams’ chief of staff and confidante — and the church’s lead pastor.

Carone left Adams’ office in 2022, when he was making $251,982, and started his own consulting and lobbying firm, Oaktree Solutions.

He has since raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the mayor’s reelection campaign, and critics say “he is trading in on his close relationship with the mayor in order to amass a small fortune from the city’s biggest power players, people who are potentially looking for favorable action from City Hall,” NY1 reported.

**Eric Ulrich, most recently the city’s Building Department chief, after being a longtime city councilman and briefly Adams’ advisor, was charged in September 2023 in a 16-count indictment, alleging he traded political favors for more than $150,000 in bribes. He resigned in November 2022 while still under investigation, later pleading not guilty in that ongoing case.

But his tenure as a city employee cost taxpayers $1.4 million since 2014.

**Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg resigned and Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan announced plans to step down at the end of the year. Neither have been reported to have been questioned or searched by the feds.

ONE MORE THING: Although not city employees, Brianna Suggs, Adams’ fundraiser/campaign consultant, and Cenk Öcal, a member of Adams’ transition team and a former executive at Turkish Airlines, both have been investigated by the FBI.

CONCLUSION

This lengthy list of actors in the Adams’ drama grows by the day. It goes to show that oftentimes, the most corrupt behavior happens where we’re last looking for it — at the municipal level.

It’s all the reason a New Yorker should need to support a new City Council proposal: creating an advice-and-consent process for approving the mayor’s agency commissioners.

Adams, however, killed the initiative by calling his own Charter Revision Commission to supersede the City Council. The mayor’s commission has been called a “sham,” bypassing the democratic process in favor of putting five ballot questions on the November ballot — none of which involved giving the City Council advise-and-consent power.

New York residents should demand more accountability when it comes to appointees, so they can avoid any scandal of this magnitude in the future. Otherwise, they’re at risk of paying their tax money into another complex of mutual favoritism and corruption.