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Years before federal probes, Banks brother helped Mayor Adams rake in over $90k for campaign
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Sep 10, 2024
Modified Sep 10, 2024
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Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Sep 10, 2024
Modified Sep 10, 2024
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A sprawling federal investigation into Mayor Eric Adams' inner circle has reportedly ensnared a longtime transit supervisor who started a government relations firm – while his two brothers serve as deputy mayor of public safety and schools chancellor.
Terence Banks pivoted from supervising policy at the MTA to running a firm that claimed to "foster strategic alliances" between the public and private sectors. His company, the Pearl Alliance, claimed on its website to represent clients with business before the New York City government. According to the New York Times, federal authorities seized Banks’ phone last week, around the same time agents raided the homes of his brothers, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks and Schools Chancellor David Banks.
While Terence, the youngest Banks brother, had previously avoided the spotlight, documents show he has been in Adams' orbit since at least 2020, raising piles of campaign cash. Terence Banks was listed as the host or co-host of five events that collected nearly 250 donations for Adams’ 2021 campaign, netting a total of $91,715 before matching funds, Gothamist has found.
A campaign watchdog flagged some of those events as unreported in-kind donations — and some featured contributions from Adams associates who have come under the scrutiny of state and federal investigators.
Details of the fundraising have not been previously reported.
On Monday, the Daily News reported that authorities were investigating whether Terence Banks was acting as an unregistered lobbyist representing companies with business before city agencies overseen by his brothers. News site The City also raised questions as to why a tech company selling a “panic button” school safety app dropped former Council Speaker Corey Johnson as a lobbyist. As of this summer, the company had hired Terence Banks, according to an archived version of the Pearl Alliance site. City ethics rules bar lobbying one's own family members.
Neither the mayor nor any of the Banks brothers have been charged with wrongdoing. But a draft audit of the Adams 2021 campaign shows the New York City Campaign Finance Board flagged two of the events Terence Banks hosted for missing required documentation.
The first event was a house party Terence Banks hosted on May 27, 2021, listed in campaign finance records as the “Shango/Terry House Party.” (It is unclear who “Shango” is, and neither the board nor Terence Banks’ attorney answered questions about it.) The event raised $4,175 from 15 donors – meaning that the host likely should have been identified as an intermediary, which is someone who is raising bundles of donations for a candidate**.** All house party hosts who raise or spend more than $500 to host an event for a campaign are supposed to identify themselves as intermediaries.
The Adams campaign only identified four intermediaries for its entire 2021 campaign; Terence Banks was not one of them.
On Aug. 20, 2021 – after Adams had won the June primary and was heavily favored to win the general election – Terence Banks held a fundraiser at a location listed as “The Preserve at Woodlands” that raised $42,800 from 62 donations, before matching funds. The Campaign Finance Board also cited that event as an unreported in-kind donation because the campaign did not report expenses associated with the event.
The Adams campaign didn’t provide information on the location of “The Preserve at Woodlands.” At the time it was held, the New York Times reported that Adams had a fundraiser in Martha’s Vineyard. The Preserve at Woodlands is the name of an upscale housing development near a golf course in Oak Bluffs, a historically Black enclave on the tony island.
Donors at the event included Philip Banks as well as at least one employee of United Way of New York City, whose president at the time was Sheena Wright, who is now the first deputy mayor. (Sheena Wright lives with David Banks, and her home was also recently raided.) According to her LinkedIn page, the United Way employee went on to work for Wright after she became first deputy mayor.
The New York City Campaign Finance Board provides a generous 8-to-1 match for the first $250 a New York City resident donates.
Vito Pitta, an attorney for the Adams campaign, declined to comment on why the events Terence Banks hosted appeared to be missing required documentation.
He also declined to comment on the campaign’s response to the Campaign Finance Board’s draft audit, which was due last month. The audit raised concerns about discrepancies across 22 categories within the campaign’s fundraising records. Gothamist previously reported on the sloppy record-keeping highlighted in the audit, parts of which overlap with an FBI probe of the mayor's campaign.
An attorney for Terence Banks, Tim Sini, the former Suffolk County district attorney and police commissioner, told the Daily News that federal investigators said Terence Banks was not the target of their investigation. Sini was traveling through Thursday and has not yet responded to Gothamist’s request for comment.
Terence Banks hosted another fundraiser on Sept. 24, 2021, just slightly more than a month before the general election. The event was held at the since-closed Grotto restaurant and bar in Rockville Centre, where he helped raise $28,000 from more than 91 donations. The campaign reported paying $2,000 for the food for the event.
Other Banks family events that show up in campaign finance records, but were not flagged for any additional CFB follow up, include a July 10, 2020 fundraiser that David, Terence and Philip Banks co-hosted via Zoom. The event generated 71 donations totaling $15,670 before matching funds.
One of the donors to that Zoom event was Dwayne Montgomery, a retired NYPD inspector who was a colleague of Adams’ when he was a police officer. In February, Montgomery pleaded guilty to his role in a straw donor scheme to support the Adams campaign. Prosecutors said the straw donor scheme commenced a month after the Banks’ Zoom fundraiser, running from Aug. 6, 2020 through November 2021.
David Banks, Terence Banks and Wright hosted another Zoom fundraiser on Aug. 7, 2020. Only three people donated to that event and they all worked for the United Federation of Teachers, the union representing city teachers. The event raised $1,000 before matching funds.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education referred to a statement by David Banks, the school chancellor, statement last week. In it, David Banks said he was cooperating with a “federal inquiry” and could not comment more at this time.
Wright, who joined the mayor at his weekly off-topic press briefing on Tuesday, said she was also cooperating with investigators.
“I am confident that I’ve done nothing wrong,” Wright said.
In a statement to Gothamist, Ben Brafman, a lawyer representing the deputy mayor for public safety, said: “In my judgment, Phil Banks has zero criminal liability in this case. Zero.”
Update: This story has been updated to include a statement attorney Ben Brafman sent after publication.
Tagged
new york city
Politics
eric adams
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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