Corruption probe of ex-NYPD Commissioner Caban is on back burner, official says

The federal investigation into former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and his twin brother’s work as a consultant in New York City’s nightlife industry has been “deprioritized,” a government official familiar with the case told Gothamist.

The official asked not to be named because they are not authorized to discuss the case publicly. The update appears to be the first time an official has confirmed what defense attorneys and other legal observers have suspected: Federal investigators are no longer actively pursuing the sprawling investigations into Mayor Eric Adams' administration that sent shockwaves through City Hall last year.

Gothamist previously reported that the federal investigations into Adams’ administration last year appear to be on the backburner following the dismissal of corruption allegations against Adams himself.

Investigators were looking into whether Caban and his twin brother James accepted payments from nightclubs in exchange for assistance dealing with the department, according to the New York Times.

Caban was the first high-ranking Adams official to resign last year amid a wave of raids by federal officials targeting the administration. Investigators seized Caban’s phone and searched his home.

Weeks after that visit from federal agents, a Brooklyn bar owner told NBC 4 that James Caban tried to shake him down for money in 2023.

Shamel Kelly’s bar in Coney Island, Juice and Moore, had faced dozens of noise complaints, according to the report.

Kelly said that he’d declined an offer from James Caban to mediate his issues with the local community board and police department. Kelly said he’d been referred to James Caban by Raymond Martin, a mayoral staffer focused on nightlife issues.

City Hall fired Martin for “violating the terms of his employment” shortly after Kelly went public with his allegations in September.

Juice and Moore closed at the end of 2023 because police harassment had “drained the business,” Kelly said.

He was stunned to hear the Caban investigation had slowed down.

“I don’t see why it would be deprioritized,” Kelly said during a phone interview. “It’s a big, big issue.”

Kelly declined to tell Gothamist when he’d last spoken to federal investigators.

James Caban came up in a second legal complaint, as well. In February, NYPD Lt. Emelio Rodriques alleged in a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that “certain nightclubs and lounges with ties to James Caban were insulated entirely from any law enforcement scrutiny” despite repeated community complaints. Rodriques alleged he faced retaliation after he raised questions about what he saw as “selective enforcement” involving nightlife businesses.

Eric Sanders, a lawyer for Rodriques, was not surprised that the Caban investigation had slowed. “There’s a lot of politics involved with this stuff at the federal level,” he said. In April, a judge dismissed Adams’ federal corruption indictment at the request of the Trump Justice Department.

Lawyers for James and Edward Caban did not respond to inquiries about the status of the federal investigation. A spokesperson for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which was involved in most of the investigations, declined to comment.

Questions about the status of the federal probes were revived in recent weeks after five high-ranking former NYPD officers, including the commissioner who succeeded Caban, filed civil lawsuits alleging widespread corruption in the department.

Adams has dismissed the recent lawsuits as unfounded complaints from “disgruntled” former employees.

Earlier this month, James Essig, a former chief of detectives, alleged Caban sold promotions for $15,000. He claimed Caban had hijacked the department’s system of promotions to reward unqualified allies and punish enemies.

Sarena Townsend, an attorney for Essig and three other NYPD chiefs, said she was “disappointed but not surprised” by the investigation's apparent halt.

“It shows a two-tiered system of justice,” she said. “Some are prosecuted to the fullest extent versus others who get to do whatever they want without repercussions.”

Thomas Donlon, a former FBI official who replaced Caban as interim commissioner, accused Adams of running the NYPD as a criminal enterprise.

Donlon’s attorney John Scola said the pause of the investigation into Caban “sends a dangerous message: that public corruption will be ignored when it implicates powerful people. Every honest officer — and every New Yorker — deserves answers.”