Indicted Mayor Eric Adams and 13 of his mostly now former top aides ensnared in corruption and other probes have enjoyed annual taxpayer-funded salaries totaling nearly $3 million, a new analysis shows.
The annual salaries include $258,750 for Adams; $363,346 for then-Schools Chancellor David Banks $363,346; $275,000 for Bank’s wife, then-First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, and $251,982 for Bank’s brother, then-Deputy Mayor Philip Banks, according to the list compiled by the government watchdog group Open The Books.
The FBI has searched the homes and seized the phones of Adams and the Banks.
Senior mayoral adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin also was recently greeted by authorities who slapped her with a subpoena and seized her phone upon returning from a trip to Japan at Kennedy Airport. She’s paid $252,982.
Then-senior adviser Timothy Pearson, who was paid $242,000, had his phone seized and resigned last month.
The list also includes then-Police Commissioner Edward Caban and current interim Commissioner Tom Donlon, both of whom earned or earn $242,592. Authorities seized the phone and searched the home of Caban and also raided the home of Donlon, a retired top FBI agent.
Adams’ girlfriend, Tracy Collins, is paid $221,597 as a senior adviser in the city Education Department. While she is not charged with wrongdoing, her alleged actions are described in the indictment accusing the mayor of conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery involving Turkish foreign nationals.
Adams denied wrongdoing and is contesting the charges.
The tally includes then-aides Winnie Greco, who received $100,000 and Rana Abbosova and Mohammad Bahi, both of whom earned $80,000.
Earlier this month, Manhattan federal prosecutors charged Bahi, a former City Hall special assistant, with witness-tampering and destroying evidence in the case against the mayor.
Greco, who served as the mayor’s director of Asian affairs, has long been under scrutiny for ties to Chinese nationals and recently resigned.
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Abbasova, a key figure in the criminal case against Adams, was fired, sources said.
Elsewhere, Molly Schaefer, the $201,000 director of the office of asylum operations, was mentioned for getting subpoenaed as part of a probe into emergency contracts for migrant services.
Lastly, city Sheriff Anthony Miranda, who makes $213,000, was mentioned regarding an investigation into his office’s handling of cash seizures at illegal pot shops.
With the exception of Adams and Bahi, none of the ex-or-current staffers are accused of wrongdoing.
But Open The Books said the numerous scandals involving the top echelon of the Adams’ administration is reason enough to give the City Council more oversight to confirm mayoral appointees, as is the case with the US Senate confirming presidential appointees and the state Senate gubernatorial selections.
“New Yorkers have some of the highest living expenses in the country,” said Open The Books spokesman Christopher Neefus. “When they pay these salaries, they expect public servants to work diligently to make the city a better place to live and raise a family. That includes strong public schools, improving public safety, and ethical decision making.
“They sure don’t expect to get a corruption investigation that seems to grow more sprawling by the day. To avoid a repeat of this mess, taxpayers should demand more oversight of political appointments — the very thing Mayor Adams seems to be resisting,” he said.
The mayor’s office dismissed the group’s analysis as a cheap shot at the city government workforce.
“Over 300,000 city employees work every day to deliver for 8.3 million New Yorkers — cleaning our streets, keeping our neighborhoods safe, making sure our kids can go to school, and so much more,” Adams’ spokesman Fabien Levy said.
“We won’t allow an organization unknown to most New Yorkers to disparage the work of hundreds of thousands of city employees.”
