Terence Banks, a consultant and former MTA official who’s wrapped up in a federal probe of several top officials in the Adams administration, scrubbed his company website after the feds raided his home last week — just days after he was boasting about his political connections, The Post has learned.
Banks — brother of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks and Schools Chancellor David Banks, both of whom the feds also targeted — was gloating about his influence with the Adams administration right up to the time the feds knocked on his door, political insiders told The Post.
But in the days since, Banks has taken down the website for his company, The Pearl Alliance, which described itself as a “values-driven government and community relations firm” but offered very little description of what it actually does.
By Sunday, the website vanished — replaced instead by a domain listing.
The company’s LinkedIn profile — which listed Banks as Pearl’s founder and CEO — was also removed, and the search link now leads to an empty page.
Banks has not been accused of a crime. But the feds circled in on him and his brothers during a sweeping set of raids this week in which they showed up waving search warrants — and later seized their electronic devices.
Law enforcement sources say authorities did a thorough search of Banks’ residence — more so than other targets — and also subpoenaed his phone.
Leading the investigation are prosecutors from the Southern District of New York — who are also probing Adams’ top aides in another, separate investigation launched last year into the mayor’s 2021 campaign donations, sources said.
Banks worked for the Metropolitan Transit Authority for 25 years, according to his personal LinkedIn page.
He is also a longtime board member of Queens Community Board 13, as well as a member of One Hundred Black Men, an organization of black business owners, politicos and community leaders, the page said.
He is the legislature chair of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials, it added.
That work fits in with the general perception that Banks had for years been trying to make political inroads just before his retirement — which he celebrated in March 2023 with a lavish party at Jay-Z’s 40/40 club at its old location on West 25th Street, sources said.
The shindig was sponsored by The Pearl Alliance and featured hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, a two-drink minimum and bottle service.
“These guys are selling access,” one veteran lobbyist said about Banks’ alleged wheeling and dealing. “That’s what legitimate people in the business are up against.”
Banks — who is not a registered lobbyist — has also been spotted coming and going from Police Commissioner Edward Caban’s office on more than once occasion, sources said.
Caban’s home was also raided as part of the feds’ dragnet. But the purpose of his meetings with Banks remains unclear.
However, several clients he purportedly represents had business before city officials — including the NYPD.
One of those — Saferwatch, which makes an app that lets anyone send text, video or audio tips to police — received about $67,000 over the last year from the NYPD for various technical assistance and school safety work, according to the city’s online records.
Others clients — such as Derive Technologies, an IT support company; SVAM International, an IT service provider; and Mercato, a grocery store delivery app — had millions of dollars’ worth of contracts with the city, online records said.
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