Feds serve NYC Department of Education with subpoena, sources say

Cayla Bamberger and Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Oct 11, 2024

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NEW YORK — Federal authorities have hit New York City’s Department of Education with a subpoena as part of one of several corruption investigations ensnaring Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

One of the sources briefed on the subpoena’s contents said among the things investigators are seeking information on is SaferWatch, a Florida-based company that has come up in the context of a bribery inquiry into the consulting company of the brother of two former top Adams aides.

Public school press secretary Nathaniel Styer declined to comment on ongoing investigations. Another source said the information being sought pertained to the DOE office of operations and finance. Styer denied there was a subpoena of the office or its head, Deputy Chancellor Emma Vadehra, adding that an agency — and not a particular individual — responds to subpoenas.

On Thursday, federal and city investigators searched the offices of the New York Police Department’s School Safety Division also for documents related to SaferWatch, which secured a deal with the police unit to deploy a “panic button” system in five city schools last year as part of a pilot program. Thursday’s raid came after SaferWatch was served with a search warrant, as first reported by the Daily News last month.

SaferWatch was represented by Terence Banks, a government relations consultant who’s the younger brother of outgoing Schools Chancellor David Banks and recently resigned Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks.

Last month, all three Banks brothers were raided by the feds, and David and Phil Banks have since announced their resignations from the Adams administration. David Banks’ last day at the helm of the nation’s largest school system is Tuesday. Phil Banks resigned Monday.

The source said David Banks’ leadership meeting was canceled at the end of the week.