Forward of the 2022 faculty yr, the schooling expertise firm 21stCentEd was searching for to develop its presence in New York Metropolis’s public faculties. So that they turned to a person, Terence Banks, whose new consulting agency promised to attach purchasers with prime authorities stakeholders.
Banks wasn’t a registered lobbyist. His day job, on the time, was as a supervisor within the metropolis’s subway system. However he had a minimum of one platinum connection: His older brother, David Banks, is New York Metropolis’s faculties chancellor, overseeing the nation’s largest faculty system.
Inside a month of the rent, 21stCentEd had secured a personal assembly with the faculties chancellor. Within the two years since that October 2022 assembly, greater than $1.4 million in Schooling Division funds have flowed to the corporate, practically tripling its earlier complete, data present.
The siblings — together with a 3rd brother, Philip Banks, who serves as New York Metropolis’s deputy mayor of public security — are actually enmeshed in a sprawling federal probe that has touched a number of high-ranking members of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
Federal investigators seized telephones final week from all three brothers and a minimum of three different prime metropolis officers, together with Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned Thursday.
The precise nature of the investigation — or investigations — has not been disclosed. Amongst different issues, federal authorities are investigating the previous police commissioner’s twin brother, James Caban, a former police sergeant who runs a nightclub safety enterprise.
On Wednesday, a metropolis operations coordinator was fired after a bar proprietor in Brooklyn informed NBC New York that he had been pressured by the aide into hiring the police commissioner’s brother to make noise complaints in opposition to his enterprise go away.
Federal investigators are additionally scrutinizing whether or not Terence Banks’ consulting agency, the Pearl Alliance, broke the legislation by leveraging his household connections to assist non-public corporations safe metropolis contracts, in line with an individual accustomed to the matter. The individual spoke to The Related Press on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to reveal details about the investigations.
All three Banks brothers have denied wrongdoing. David and Terence Banks have stated they don’t consider they’re the goal of the investigation. However authorities watchdogs say the household’s overlapping work within the non-public and public sector might have run afoul of battle of curiosity guardrails in addition to metropolis and state legal guidelines on procurement lobbying.
“It has the appearance of Terence Banks using his family connections to help his client and enrich himself,” stated Susan Lerner, the chief director of Widespread Trigger New York, a good-government group.
Timothy Sini, an lawyer for Terence Banks, didn’t reply to particular questions concerning the consulting agency. However he wrote in an e mail, “We have been assured by the Government that Mr. Banks is not a target of this investigation.”
Talking at a information convention Friday, David Banks stated FBI brokers had not returned his cellphone, and he declined to reply questions on his relationship to his brother’s consulting agency. “We are cooperating with a federal investigation,” he stated.
Metropolis ethics guidelines ban family from lobbying one another. At minimal, David Banks can be required to safe a waiver from town’s Conflicts of Curiosity Board earlier than assembly with an organization represented by his brother, in line with John Kaehny, the chief director of the good-government group Reinvent Albany.
“It’s surprisingly arrogant or obtuse that David Banks, one of the city’s top government officials, would ignore this basic, commonsense, conflict of interest rule,” Kaehny stated in an e mail.
Neither the Division of Schooling nor the Conflicts of Curiosity Board would say whether or not a waiver was requested.
A spokesperson for the Division of Schooling, Nathaniel Styer, stated all spending linked to 21stCentEd had come from particular person faculties and districts, which may make purchases of lower than $25,000 with out the company’s approval.
The Utah-based firm trains lecturers and gives curriculums targeted on synthetic intelligence, robotics, and automation.
Dylan Howard, a spokesperson for the corporate, stated Terence Banks was employed “to help 21stCentEd present our STEM solutions and services to decision makers within New York City public schools.” He stated they discovered of his consulting agency via a 21stCentEd worker who has since left the corporate.
The spokesperson couldn’t say how the assembly with the college’s chancellor happened or whether or not Terence Banks attended. He added that Terence Banks had offered “no value” to the corporate and that his contract was terminated final December.
21stCentEd was one among a number of corporations with metropolis contracts that employed Terence Banks’ consulting agency, in line with an internet site for the Pearl Alliance that was taken down after information of the federal investigations emerged final week.
One other listed consumer, SaferWatch, sells panic buttons to colleges and police departments. Since August of 2023, it has been awarded greater than $67,000 in metropolis contracts, in line with metropolis data.
The third Banks brother, Philip Banks, maintains large affect over the NYPD as deputy mayor for public security. A spokesperson for SaferWatch, Hank Sheinkopf, declined to remark. The NYPD didn’t reply to e mail inquiries.
In complete, the Pearl Alliance listed 9 purchasers with tens of millions of {dollars} in metropolis contracts, together with a software program enterprise, a grocery supply start-up, and an organization that makes a speciality of concrete. At the very least seven of the businesses have previous or present contracts with town.
It wasn’t clear whether or not the federal inquiry into the consulting agency run by Terence Banks was a part of the investigation into the police commissioner’s brother.
Ray Martin, town official who was stated to have pressured a bar proprietor to rent James Caban, was “terminated for cause” Thursday after the mayor’s workplace discovered of the allegations, in line with Fabien Levy, the deputy mayor for communications.
The bar proprietor, Shamel Kelly, informed WNBC-TV that Martin gave him what felt like an ultimatum final yr to both pay James Caban or threat having his enterprise shut down. Kelly stated James Caban demanded an upfront price of $2,500. He stated he had been interviewed Thursday by federal investigators and town’s Division of Investigation. Messages searching for remark had been left with these businesses.
Makes an attempt to succeed in Martin weren’t instantly profitable. A cellphone quantity listed in his identify was now not working.
A lawyer for James Caban stated he “unequivocally denies any wrongdoing” and has cooperated absolutely with legislation enforcement. As soon as the investigation is full, lawyer Sean Hecker stated, “it will be clear that these claims are unfounded and lack merit.”
Each David and Philip Banks stay of their authorities positions. An lawyer for Philip Banks, Benjamin Brafman, declined to remark.
At a press briefing Tuesday, Adams famous his relationship with the Banks household dates again a long time, to when he served within the police division underneath the brothers’ father. He stated he by no means met with Terence Banks about metropolis enterprise.
“I’ve known the Banks families for years,” Adams stated. “And my knowing someone, I hold them to the same standard that I hold myself to.”
