Outgoing Schools Chancellor David Banks and his decade-plus partner First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright planned to finally tie the knot this weekend, as a federal corruption probe ensnares the Banks family, three sources familiar with their nuptial plans tell the Daily News.
The wedding ceremony between two of Mayor Adams’ top aides, on Martha’s Vineyard, was reportedly scheduled for August 2023 — but postponed until the most tumultuous week of the Adams administration as the mayor faces federal bribery and foreign campaign donation charges.
Chancellor David Banks and Sheena Wright plan Martha’s Vineyard wedding amid federal corruption probe: sources
It’s not clear what venue the wedding was slated to take place in or how many people were expected to attend. But the nuptials were believed to be a very small, tight-knit affair, one source said.
“We have been talking about this for a while and now living in Harlem together, and I said it’s time,” Banks said in an interview with New York Magazine in fall 2022, when the pair got engaged.
Their union comes as Banks announced his retirement by the end of the year, and Wright is also rumored to be heading out the door. Earlier this week, Adams issued an unusual executive order that eases Wright’s ability to delegate her duties.
Mayor Adams, who on Wednesday at Banks’ retirement press conference in the Bronx referred to the departing schools chancellor as his “brother,” did not plan to attend.
“The mayor’s in town the whole weekend,” said deputy mayor for communications Fabien Levy. He declined to say if any taxpayer dollars are being spent on the wedding weekend, but said Wright does not have her own security detail and pays for own personal travel.
Outgoing Schools Chancellor David Banks plants three kisses on his fiancé Sheena Wright at his retirement press conference Wednesday at the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice. (NY Mayor Media Office)
Banks and Wright had their phones seized and Harlem apartment raided by the FBI on Sept. 4. Sources told The News the feds are looking at clients of David’s brother Terence Banks, who have business before his siblings’ city agencies, including a third brother, Phil Banks, the deputy mayor of public safety. None have been accused of wrongdoing.
While there’s no indication Banks and Wright are getting hitched for marital privilege, their union could provide them legal cover if prosecutors try to force husband and wife to testify against each other.