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Federal agents visit NYPD office where top Eric Adams officials work to ‘look for records’: sources

The same day Mayor Adams was indicted on wire fraud and bribery charges, two FBI agents probing the NYPD showed up at the downtown Manhattan office building whe🐲re two top mayoral advisors, b🌠oth former cops, work, police sources said. 

The feds were “looking for records,” sources said, and signed the visitors log at around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday on the 16th floor of 375 Pearl St., otherwise known as the Verizon Building.

NYPD Deputy Mayor Phil Ba♔nks and mayoral aide Timothy Pearson work on that floor. There is a records room, and legal and budget offices on that floor.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on whether the agents were executing a search warrant or seizing records.

While Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on wire fraud and bribery charges, FBI agents probing the NYPD raided the Verizon building on 375 Pearl St. in downtown Manhattan, where his two top mayoral advisors, who are ex-cops, work. AP

A spokesman for Mayor Adams denied agents went to the buil🍷ding as part of the ꧙probe.

“City Hall’s additional offices at 375 Pearl Street were not raided by federal law enforcement on Wednesday as was inaccurately reported earlier and there is no record of them visiting our team that day,” Adams’ spokesperson said in a statement.

“The building has many other tenants and we cannot speak to whether anyone else in the building had a scheduled meeting with federal law enforcement on Wednesday, but, again, there is no indication that any federal law enforcement was present in our offices that day,” they added.

Banks also denied the report in a post on X.

The feds are also looking at whether bribes we♔re paid for NYPD promotions and transfers, another source famili🔯ar with the investigation said.

Both Pearson and Banks have been involved with promoting and transferꦚring officers, according to multiple police sources.

Promotions and transfers are referred to as “contracts” in the NYPD and are known to sometimes involve preferential treatment for friends and family, in a profession that prides itself in being passed down through generations.

The Wednesday visit to the Verizon Building, a stone’s throw from NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza, occurred amid multiple federal probes into the Adams administration.

The mayor was indicted Thursday on charges of bribery and wire fraud for a🃏llegedly accepting campaign donations and free travel from foreign business people and a Turkish government official in exchange for favorable treatment.

The feds were “looking for records” on the 16th floor of the building where NYPD Deputy Mayor Phil Banks and mayoral aide Timothy Pearson work on the same floor. Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

Banks, Pearson and former Police Commissioner Edward Caban all had their phones seized by the feds earlier this mon🐷th. Caban resigned Sept. 12 following pressure from City Hall after a federal raid on his Rockland County home.

Federal agents also got phones or phone records from si🧸x other NYPD officials who worked closely with the police commissioner, including Caban’s chief of staff Raul Pintos, two precinct commanders, a lieutenant and two detectives who work on Caban’s detail▨.

No ꧅one in the Police Department has been arr⛎ested or charged.

Earlier this year, the NYPD’s Technical Assistance Response Unit began receiving regular requests from brass at One Police Plaza to sweep their offices for bugs, according to another NYPD source and a source familiar with the probe.

No comment was made on the records search by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Imogen Brown

“It’s shady if you’re being investigated by the feds,” the source with knowledge of the investigation said.

Federal agents served the NYPD with a preservation letter on Sept. 6, ordering them not to destroy any electronic files — as investigators looked for evidence of alleged influence peddling by Caban’s brother, Jame𝔉s, at Big Apple nightcluꦇbs, according to police sources.

Bar owner Shamel Kelly, who owns Juice & Moore on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island, he went to City Hall seeking a break from a heavy police presence at his establishment and that a may🦩oral staffer introduced him to James Caban, himself a former NYPD officer.

Kelly alleged the commissioner’s twin told him he’d take care of his problems with the police if Kelly paid $2,500.

On Sept. 14, federal investigators subpoenaed phones from a group of NYPD officers responsible in part for fielding complaints about bars, ac❀cording to police sources. 

The cops haꦓd allegedly been told to take it easy on bars that were clients of James Caban. “Do not do enforcement, just mediate,” the cops were told, according to a source.

Pearson, who was in charge of migrant services contracts, allegedly told workers in the newly-created Municipal Service Assessment unit he runs that he was looking to line his own pockets, according to an April lawsuit.

“People are do♈in🐻g very well on these contracts,” Pearson said, according to the lawsuit. “I have to get mine. Where are my crumbs?”

The Cabans, Pearson and Banks haven’t been charged.

Adams appointed Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon on Sept. 13, and on Sept. 21, Donlon’s home was searched by the feds. He said they seized materials unrelated to his work with the NYPD and he has not commented on the probe.