Brothers Phil and Terence Banks — each targets of a federal investigation into shut allies of Mayor Eric Adams — have a style for the finer issues and like to hang around at swanky Manhattan nightclubs, The Submit has realized.
Phil Banks, the town’s deputy mayor for public security, frequents Casa Cipriani, a complicated, members-only institution on South Avenue that costs patrons a cool $3,900 per 12 months in dues — on high of the one-time initiation price of $2,000, based on sources and the membership web site.
Banks raked in about $252,000 final 12 months for his work with the Adams administration, which the retired cop then stacks on high of his annual NYPD pension of about $135,000, on-line payroll data present.
He and Terence, a retired MTA worker, additionally frequently hit up Membership Macanudo, an upscale cigar membership on 63rd Avenue owned by a cigar maker of the identical title.
His ritzy habits led one former co-worker to name Phil a “grasping ex-boss who thinks he’s above the regulation.”
“He has costly style — cigars, cognac, watches — however he doesn’t wish to pay,” one other supply, a retired police supervisor, informed The Submit.
“That’s why he acquired in bother the primary time for hanging out with Jeremy Reichberg,” the supervisor continued, referencing the Metropolis Corridor fundraiser who was convicted as a part of an enormous NYPD corruption scandal in 2016.
“You’d assume Banks would have realized,” the supply stated.
The brothers — who’re additionally siblings of Colleges Chancellor David Banks, an Adams appointee additionally underneath federal investigation — have come underneath great scrutiny resulting from their entanglement within the wide-ranging probe that introduced brokers to their doorways final week.
None have been accused of wrongdoing.
Members of the Banks household have lengthy been shut mates of the mayor, who was mentored by their cop father earlier in his personal police profession, Adams stated Tuesday.
Terence Banks — a former MTA official who retired final 12 months and collects an $88,000 annual pension, based on SeeThroughNY — began his personal consulting agency, The Pearl Alliance, after his retirement.
“For a person who left the MTA, he led a bougie way of life — from jet-setting to Martha’s Winery, to surrounding himself with a few of New York’s elite,” one supply stated of Terence, who in his final 12 months with the MTA made $127,000 as a mid-level supervisor.
Public data present that his purchasers have thousands and thousands of {dollars}’ value of contracts with the town. Terence — who shouldn’t be a registered lobbyist — scrubbed his companies’ web site after the feds launched their raids.
He reportedly additionally raised piles of money for Adams’ 2021 mayoral marketing campaign.
Federal authorities haven’t made clear the final word purpose of final week’s raids, subpoenas and inquiries. However sources have stated that investigators from the Southern District of New York are trying into rampant corruption and affect peddling.
Investigators additionally need to know whether or not Phil Banks helped steer any metropolis contracts to his brother’s purchasers, sources have stated.
Phil Banks isn’t the one Adams aide underneath investigation pulling a pension and a metropolis wage.
Timothy Pearson, a retired NYPD inspector who now advises Adams on public security — and who additionally had his residence raided final week — pulls a $124,000 pension from his cop profession on high of a beneficiant wage of about $242,000.
So far as belongings go, Phil Banks additionally has greater than $1 million in inventory from firms similar to Tesla, Apple, McDonald’s and numerous sorts of cryptocurrency, based on annual battle of curiosity disclosures obtained by The Submit.
And he earns tens of 1000’s annually off his three New York Metropolis rental properties, the disclosures present.
He additionally seems to have property in Fort Myers, Florida, that he runs to on the weekends.
As soon as a rising star within the NYPD — and a finalist to be former Mayor Invoice de Blasio’s police commissioner — Phil’s profession was derailed when the feds focused him in one other corruption probe greater than a decade in the past.
Investigators discovered “lots of of 1000’s” of {dollars}’ value of questionable deposits in his financial institution accounts whereas they had been trying into his shut relationship with two businessmen being probed for giving presents to high-ranking NYPD members in change for favors.
The gathering storm pushed Banks out the door — and he abruptly resigned in October 2014 as a substitute of taking a promotion to the NYPD’s No. 2 spot.
The FBI later stated the $300,000 in transactions mirrored all of the hallmarks of cash laundering.
Neither Phil or Terence Banks or Pearson returned requests for remark Wednesday. Legal professionals for Terence and Phil Banks referred The Submit to earlier statements.
Timothy D. Sini, a lawyer for Terence, stated: “Now we have been assured by the federal government that Mr. Banks shouldn’t be a goal of this investigation.”
Phil Banks lawyer Benjamin Brafman stated he believes his consumer: “has zero felony legal responsibility on this case — zero.”
Phil and Terence’s popularity has left cops shaking their heads — and joking that the Banks brothers must be known as the James brothers, in a nod to the well-known outlaw robbers from the Previous West.
Each additionally present up at Nexus Membership New York, one other non-public membership membership on Church Avenue that spans a complete metropolis block and boasts 4 completely different eating places, a fitness center, a spa and a simulated indoor driving vary, amongst different issues.
Phil doesn’t have a membership himself, sources stated, however makes use of his brother’s account.
“Phil likes to hang around in costly eating places and smoke cigars,” the supply stated. “So long as another person is paying.”
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