World Courant
A staffer for New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams was fired Thursday after a Brooklyn bar proprietor claimed the staffer tried to extort cash from him by leaning on former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban’s twin brother. The information comes amid a rising federal probe of Adams’ interior circle.
Ray Martin, an operations supervisor within the metropolis’s group affairs unit, was terminated after a bombshell WNBC report with a Coney Island bar proprietor saying Martin tried to dealer a cope with James Caban, the dual brother of former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned Thursday. The purported deal was meant to repair the bar proprietor’s issues with the NYPD.
Shamel Kelly, the bar proprietor who operated the “Juice and Moore Bar” alongside Mermaid Avenue, mentioned he was instructed if he employed and paid the police commissioner’s brother, he would get assist and higher therapy from the NYPD, in keeping with the report.
Kelly had racked up dozens of noise complaints about loud music, and police from the sixtieth Precinct stored displaying up, hurting his comparatively new enterprise.
NYPD BOSS RESIGNS AS DEM MAYOR’S INNER CIRCLE FACES POSSIBLE CORRUPTION PROBE
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams and New York Metropolis Police Commissioner Edward Caban attend a information convention at 1 Police Plaza in New York Metropolis April 3, 2024. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
“I felt it was like I acquired an ultimatum. It’s like both you gonna get with this, otherwise you gonna get shut down,” Kelly instructed NBC New York.
“[Martin] simply mentioned he was an assistant of Eric Adams. He mentioned he is aware of folks, and he dropped the Eddie Caban title as a result of I suppose he’s the NYPD commissioner, and I used to be having issues with the NYPD.”
Kelly alleges he reached out to James Caban, who instructed him he might assist Kelly together with his NYPD issues if he paid him about $2,500 up entrance. Kelly offered WNBC with telephone data and textual content messages from August 2023 wherein he claims Martin inspired him to contact James Caban.
HOUSE GOP PRESSES HOCHUL ON ALLEGED CCP AGENT’S INFLUENCE IN NEW YORK, INCLUDING SECRET CHINESE POLICE STATION
Kelly’s enterprise was a juice bar by day and licensed to serve alcohol on weekend nights. He declined the alleged supply from Martin and finally shuttered his enterprise in February.
New York Metropolis Corridor tells Fox Information it was unaware of the allegations made in opposition to Martin till the report broke.
“After receiving this inquiry, we instantly started an inside evaluate and located that Mr. Martin violated the phrases of his employment,” a press release offered to Fox Information mentioned.
“Mr. Martin was terminated for trigger yesterday. We count on all metropolis workers to behave ethically and within the public curiosity. As a result of WNBC simply reported that each the DOJ and DOI are investigating this matter, we’re unable to remark additional out of sensitives to their investigations.”
A staffer for New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams was fired Thursday after a Brooklyn bar proprietor claimed he was extorted for cash by former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban’s twin brother. (Adam Grey/Getty Photos)
James Caban’s attorneys instructed WNBC he “unequivocally denies any wrongdoing and that his work as a guide and liaison between the division and a personal firm was completely authorized, particularly given his earlier profession as a NYPD officer.
“Our consumer has absolutely cooperated with regulation enforcement and, as soon as their investigation is full, it will likely be clear that these claims are unfounded and lack benefit,” the assertion mentioned.
Martin served as operations coordinator since April 2023. Instantly earlier than that, he labored within the Workplace of Media and Leisure.
James Caban, in the meantime, is beneath investigation for reportedly promoting consulting providers to nightclubs beneath the guise the providers would defend the nightclubs from police scrutiny.
Federal brokers served a warrant on Deputy Mayor for Public Security Philip Banks III, pictured talking at New York Metropolis Corridor. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket by way of Getty Photos)
That investigation led to his brother Edward Caban resigning as town’s police commissioner Thursday, days after federal brokers raided the houses of the Caban brothers and people of different metropolis officers and seized their digital units as a part of a rising federal probe. Edward Caban isn’t beneath investigation, his attorneys have mentioned.
Rumors of a pending resignation have swirled for days after the Caban raids. Federal brokers served warrants on three different high-ranking Adams aides on the identical day — First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Deputy Mayor for Public Security Philip Banks III and Timothy Pearson, a former NYPD official turned mayoral adviser.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
(L-R) First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, NYC Council Member Gale Brewer, District Lawyer Alvin Bragg and Khary Lazarre-White attend the nineteenth Annual Voices Gala at The Ziegfeld Ballroom Might 9, 2024, in New York Metropolis. (Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
Final 12 months, federal brokers seized Adams’ units as he was leaving an occasion in Manhattan and raided the house of certainly one of his high fundraisers. Adams has denied any wrongdoing however confirmed final month he had acquired a subpoena from federal prosecutors and that he and his workforce are cooperating.
Adams appointed Edward Caban because the NYPD’s first Hispanic commissioner in July 2023.
He has been changed by interim Commissioner Tom Donlon, a retired FBI agent who beforehand led the Nationwide Risk Middle and oversaw the Terrorism Watch Checklist.
Fox Information’ Michael Ruiz, Alexis McAdams, Landon Mion and Maria Paronich and The Related Press contributed to this report.
Michael Dorgan is a author for Fox Information Digital and Fox Enterprise.
You’ll be able to ship tricks to michael.dorgan@fox.com and observe him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
Staffer for NYC Mayor fired amid extortion stories after NYPD commissioner resigns
World Information,Subsequent Large Factor in Public Knowledg
