In the predawn darkness of Sept. 4, 2024, city and federal law enforcement agents knocked on the heavy wooden door of the ornate Hamilton Heights townhouse Schools Chancellor David Banks and his then-fiancée, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, called home.
Agents with the FBI and city Department of Investigation confiscated their cellphones that morning as part of a broader corruption investigation targeting the top levels of then-Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
Banks and Wright would soon resign their powerful positions as revelation after revelation made clear the investigation went far beyond the couple. Banks’ brothers — Philip, a deputy mayor and former top police official, and Terence, a consultant — also had their phones seized, as did then-Police Commissioner Edward Caban. Philip Banks and Caban also resigned amid a wave of scandals that saw Adams himself indicted on separate federal corruption charges…