Scandal-plagued Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks has resigned under weeks of pressure amid a federal investigation that ensnared both him and his longtime friend, Mayor Eric Adams. a source told the Postal newspaper.
The resignation, filed Sunday night, is the latest high-profile departure from the Adams administration and raises further questions about whether the mayor himself can withstand himself after a historic federal indictment, officials said. It's certain.
Federal agents searched Banks' home in Queens early on September 4 and seized his devices.
Mr. Banks has since resisted calls for his resignation, including from the Post's editorial board, which intensified as more details about the federal investigation emerged.
People familiar with the matter told the Post that Mr. Banks fiercely resisted his resignation, but that resistance was apparently broken.
His resignation comes after his and Adams' friend Tim Pearson, a former NYPD police officer who served as the mayor's top aide and oversaw immigration security contracts, also resigned amid federal scrutiny. It was done.
The uproar comes as Adams faces five criminal charges in a federal bombshell indictment.
The federal investigation into Mr. Banks will focus on whether Mr. Banks steered the city's contracts to companies represented by his brother Terrence's consulting firm, which has secured millions of dollars worth of contracts with the city, officials said. It was said that the focus was on
Companies said to be working with Terrence Banks that won public contracts include app maker Saferwatch, tech companies Deliv Technologies and SVAM International, and grocery store delivery app developer SVAM International, records show. Includes Mercato, etc.
Sources say both Banks and his older brother are regulars at Manhattan's trendy nightclubs and cigar bars.
Banks has long been a controversial and influential figure in the Adams administration.
As deputy mayor for public safety, Banks was seen by many as a kind of shadow police commissioner. Mr. Adams repeatedly ignored his first top NYPD officer, Keychant-Sewell, who became so frustrated that he eventually resigned, sources said.
And Mr. Banks also arrived with significant baggage from his tenure with the NYPD. He rose through the ranks to become director, but abruptly resigned in 2014 before being promoted to first deputy director.
At the time, Banks said he was leaving after dissatisfied with his promotion, but he later became involved in a wide-ranging bribery scandal involving Jonah Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg, who paid police officers with prostitutes and jewelry. It was revealed that he resigned under the supervision of
Federal authorities named Mr. Banks as an unindicted co-conspirator and discovered $300,000 in mysterious transactions in his account.
Despite the scandal, Adams hired Banks as deputy mayor for public safety in 2022, a position that had not been held by a mayor in 30 years. The appointment also raised eyebrows because City Hall officials did not immediately request an employment exemption for Banks. Banks needed to qualify for a $252,000 salary while receiving a six-figure annual pension from his time as a police officer.
Adams defended Banks' hiring and others from accusations of nepotism, saying Banks was hiring “the best person for the job.”
Banks' tenure was marked by hostile interactions with reporters, questions about his rental car company's signing of the MTA contract, and ties to Pearson, who won the City Hall job despite a rocky past. It was done.
