{"id":82,"date":"2023-11-15T22:23:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T22:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/table-of-success.local\/?p=82"},"modified":"2024-10-22T21:10:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T21:10:40","slug":"philip-banks-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tableofsuccess.mysites.io\/philip-banks-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Banks III"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
In 2014, Phil Banks’s ascent through the ranks of the NYPD was nearing its apex: He had been made chief of department, the senior-most uniformed position in the NYPD, and it seemed entirely possible that he could be running the biggest police department in the country in short order. Instead, that October, Banks precipitously resigned from the force, shortly before it was revealed that he was an unindicted co-conspirator<\/a> in the one of the biggest\u2014and weirdest\u2014bribery scandals to rock City government in a generation. He was never charged with a crime, and he denied allegations of wrongdoing in an op-ed in the Daily News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as it turns out, that case and Banks’ resignation didn’t spell the end of his ambitions of running the NYPD. After Eric Adams won election in 2021, he decided Banks was the guy to be his deputy mayor for Public Safety. Banks isn’t in uniform anymore\u2014now he’s shaping his former department from City Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The scandal that preceded the end of Banks’s uniformed career began with an investigation of deposits into his bank account<\/a> but eventually shifted to focus on two businessmen, Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg<\/a>, who plied Banks and others with gifts, including cigars, fancy meals, overseas trips, and a ring that once belonged to Muhammed Ali. (Rechnitz pleaded guilty<\/a> and became a cooperating witness in the resulting federal case. Reichberg was convicted<\/a> on conspiracy and bribery charges.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Banks did not report any of these gifts<\/a> as he was required to at the time, nor did he disclose income from rental properties<\/a> he owns. A spokesperson for the Adams administration said last year<\/a> these omissions were honest mistakes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the gifts Rechnitz and Reichberg showered on Banks was a trip to Israel in 2014, memorialized in a photo album<\/a> that was later introduced as evidence in the corruption trial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The album shows Banks visiting the Wailing Wall, perusing souvenir stores, getting a personal combat tutorial from men in military fatigues, flexing and smearing himself with mud in the Dead Sea, eating ice cream, smoking cigars, and posing in the cockpit of an F-16. A video<\/a> taken in a restaurant during the trip shows Banks apparently dozing at the dinner table.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n