This story was originally published on Oct. 4 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.
First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright is expected to step down from her role on Friday, according to multiple reports.
Her resignation comes a month after federal authorities searched her home as part of a larger investigation into Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and two days after her new husband, Schools Chancellor David Banks, decided to skip out on his job early.
It’s the latest high profile resignation to rock the Adams administration, in the ongoing fallout from a string of FBI raids and phone seizures, followed by the historic indictment of Adams on corruption charges on Sept. 25.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the power to oust Adams, reportedly warned him to clean house of questionable members of his administration.
The New York Post first reported on her planned resignation and Gothamist wrote that her resignation letter could be submitted to Adams as soon as Friday, though the exact timing of her departure is uncertain.
Pix11 reported that Wright told members of the administration she was upset over how her now-husband Banks had been pushed out ahead of his planned retirement at the end of this year.
Meanwhile Politico reported that a source said “she was forced out.”
Amaris Cockfield, a spokesperson for Adams declined to comment on Wright’s resignation, saying no statement would be issued ahead of a formal announcement. Wright didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.
The Post also reported potential replacements for Wright include Anthony Shorris, who served as first deputy mayor under Bill de Blasio; Maria Torres-Springer, the current Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, Housing, and Workforce Development, or Camille Joseph Varlack, the mayor’s chief of staff.” Torres-Springer, Varlack didn’t return requests for comment. Shorris declined to comment.
‘Committed to serving New Yorkers’
Wright joined right at the start of the Adams mayoralty in 2022, initially as deputy mayor of strategic initiatives, as part of an all-female deputy mayor lineup the mayor proudly announced as one of his first moves.
She became first deputy mayor in 2023, overseeing broader mayoral initiatives and agencies including the budget office and finance department. Before coming to City Hall, Wright had been president and CEO of the United Way of New York City for about 10 years, and prior to that held the same roles for the Abyssinian Development Corporation.
Wright and her longtime partner Banks married Sept. 28 in a small ceremony on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Five days later, the mayor’s office announced Banks would leave his position Oct. 16, months earlier than his previously announced Dec. 31 retirement date.
Wright was first publicly linked to the increasingly broad probes into the Adams administration on Sept. 4, when agents raided the Hamilton Heights home she shares with Banks and seized their cell phones.
Federal agents also seized the phones of Philip Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety and David’s brother, as well as raided the home of third brother Terence Banks, a former MTA worker turned government consultant.
It’s unclear if those raids were related to the federal charges against Adams, who pleaded not guilty Sept. 27 to a five-count indictment.
But on Oct. 2, U.S. District Attorney Damian Williams warned of other officials “likely” being charged in addition to more possible charges being added to the mayor’s indictment, although it’s unclear what those charges could be.
As first deputy mayor, Wright oversaw the city’s budget office and Department of Finance, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the Office of Minority and-or-Women-Owned Business Enterprise.
In September THE CITY reported that a company formerly owned by Wright’s now-brother-in-law, Philip Banks II, received the green light to qualify for no-bid security contracts at the city’s migrant shelters — while Wright was overseeing the agencies involved.
The New York Times also reported that Banks’s former company received a $154 million contract to provide “emergency fire watch services” to the city’s public housing development; Wright sits on the housing authority’s board and voted to approve the emergency contract.
In her first comments after her phones were seized in early September, Wright denied any wrongdoing:
“I remain committed to serving New Yorkers each and every single day. That is my job, and I’m committed to it, and I continue to do it,” she said in a press conference on Sept. 10.
“I am cooperating fully with any investigation. I’m confident that I have done nothing wrong, and I just remain committed to doing the work that we have to do.”
The probe against Adams first became public Nov. 2, when the Brooklyn home of Adams’ top political fundraiser, Brianna Suggs was raided by the FBI. The mayor had just arrived in Washington. D.C. for a meeting about asylum seekers, then abruptly returned to address what his staff called “a matter.”
On the same day, law enforcement officials also raided the homes of Rana Abbasova, an Adams aide working in the mayor’s international affairs office, as well as a Turkish Airlines executive’s home, the New York Times reported.
In the year since, several other Adams officials have been raided, served subpoenas or stepped down, while Adams himself pleaded not guilty to five federal corruption charges in an ongoing federal case against him.
Adams is also the target of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed on March 18 after a notice of claim was filed in late November, before the expiration of an extension of the Adult Survivors Act that allowed potential victims to file beyond a statute of limitations.
