This story almost reads like the M*A*S*H episode where Klinger hands Henry Blake another "letter from home" which Henry adds to the pile and begins reading older letters, ending with one that reads "half family dying, other half pregnant."

Federal investigators from the Southern District of New York siezed the personal cell phones of multiple figures tied to city government:

* Terence Banks
* Philip Banks
* David Banks
* Sheena Wright
* Timothy Pearson
* Edward Caban
* Edward Caban's chief of staff (not named)
* two NYPD commanders in Queens (not named)

All three Banks are brothers. Terence Banks operates a PR consulting company supposedly focused on improving communications between governments and their communities. Philip Banks is the deputy mayor for public safety. David Banks is chancellor of NYC schools. Sheena Wright is first deputy mayor and partner with David Banks. Pearson is a senior advisor to the mayor. Caban is the police commissioner.

Here's the New York Times story on the event:

nytimes.com - Banks sheena FBI search NYC

Federal officials would not comment on the nature of the issues being investigated but did state those reasons are UNRELATED to a separate investigation already in flight regarding accusations Mayor Adams accepted bribes from the Turkish government in exchange for pressuring the NYFD to approve a design for a high-rise building to house the Turkish consulate. Normally such caveats would be stated to avoid a sense of snowballing around a single alleged crime but in this case, it seems to highlight the fact that Mayor Adams has TWO different bonfires burning in close proximity to his administration, either of which look horrible.

While federal agents provided no hints to drive informed speculation, the family connections and the fuzzy, middle-management nature of their roles seem to make corruption and ethics violations resulting from spending public dollars through family businesses without disclosure or bidding likely causes for the siezures and future activity. That layer of management would likely have the authority to generate repeated contracts or Statements of Work for $50k to $100k amounts without raising eyebrows. At least until other intercepted communications make reference to those contracts and the fact that no work was actually completed or even expected.

If they did something wrong, go git 'em, feds!

WTH