3 more top aides, including deputy mayor Phil Banks, leaving scandal-plagued Adams administration

At least three more scandal-tinged aides to New York City Mayor Eric Adams are departing his administration, including a deputy mayor the feds are investigating for alleged graft and two fundraisers-turned-City-Hall staffers who are suspected of facilitating illegal campaign donations.

The rapid shedding of mayoral aides — totaling at least a half dozen since Adams' indictment in late September — comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul has declined to use her power to remove Adams from office but is reportedly demanding that he cleanse his administration of those who are being investigated by federal officials.

Adams has pleaded not guilty and vowed not to resign despite a Marist poll that found 69% of New Yorkers believed he should.

Monday’s highest-profile resignation was Phil Banks, who is deputy mayor for public safety and a longtime confidant to Adams.

Later in the day came news of the departures of the fundraisers from Adams spokesman Fabien Levy: Winnie Greco, Adams' Asian affairs director, whose homes were raided earlier this year, resigned; and Rana Abbasova, an Adams international affairs protocol official, was fired.

None of the three departing officials — Banks, Greco and Abbasova — has been charged with a crime.

Abbasova, who allegedly helped facilitate the Turkish donations and travel that led to Adams' indictment, is reportedly cooperating with the federal government. She had been suspended from her job with Adams. Her home had been raided by the FBI last year.

Greco is reportedly being investigated for allegedly coordinating illegal straw donors.

Banks, a former NYPD chief whose home was raided last month by the FBI and his phones seized, submitted his resignation over the weekend, Adams said Monday morning.

"He stated he wants to transition to other things with his life, and he doesn’t want this to be a constant burden on the work that we’re doing in the city, and I accepted his resignation," Adams told NY1 in an interview. Adams added: "I wish my good friend well."

It's the latest resignation of controversial aides that have followed Adams' indictment late last month on corruption charges alleging he accepted illicit donations from Turkish nationals and luxury travel in exchange for facilitating favorable treatment for his benefactors from the city government. He has pleaded not guilty and vowed to fight the charges.

Last week, Adams accelerated the already hasty departure of his schools chancellor, David Banks, who is Phil Banks' brother. The resignation of Sheena Wright, Adams' first deputy — David Banks' wife and Phil Banks' sister-in-law — is reportedly imminent. Another aide whose home was raided, Tim Pearson, resigned last week. The corruption probes into Wright, the Banks brothers and Pearson appear to be distinct from the one that led to Adams' indictment.

Adams has been close to the Banks family for decades and considers their patriarch, a longtime cop, to have been one of his mentors. Adams rebuffed critics in 2022 when he appointed Phil Banks to be deputy mayor for public safety, with a portfolio including the police, fire, probation, correction and emergency management departments. Phil Banks played a role in a corruption case in which he accepted all-expense-paid trips courtesy of men who later pleaded guilty to bribery.

Phil Banks was not criminally charged, but federal prosecutors labeled him an unindicted co-conspirator.

Now Banks is once again under the alleged corruption spotlight.

Federal officials are investigating Banks, who took swift action, unsuccessfully, to get a panic button app made by a company represented by one of his brothers, transit supervisor turned political consultant Terence Banks, to be adopted by the public school system, according to the news outlet The City.

In recent weeks at City Hall, Phil Banks has rebuffed inquiries about the looming investigations, repeating to several reporters, "Go New York, go New York, go," and telling another journalist that she needs a breath mint because of her supposed bad breath.

On Monday, Adams feted Banks' tenure for, among other accomplishments, helping combat so-called "ghost cars" — vehicles with fake, altered or otherwise phony license plates — and illegal cannabis shops.

"I always want my great employees to stay," Adams said on the PIX11 morning show. He added: "I would love for him to stay as long as he wanted."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.