New York Chancellor David Banks Was Not Given a Waiver to ‘Advantage’ His Brother’s Business Clients

Schools Chancellor David Banks never got a waiver to meet with vendors who hired his younger brother, Terence, despite a possible conflict of interest, officials told The Post.

“Officials are prohibited from taking any official action to benefit any person or business ‘associated’ with that official,” said Carolyn Miller, executive director of the city’s Conflict of Interest Board.

No such waiver was granted to Chancellor Banks, who met with Marlon Lindsay, the CEO of an education technology company that went on to raise $1.4 million in taxpayer funds from city schools.

Terence Banks’ consulting firm, Pearl Alliance, had listed Lindsay’s technology education company, 21stCentEd, as a client.

Less than a month after hiring Terence, Lindsay landed a private meeting with the school’s chancellor in October 2022. Since then, as first reported by The Associated Press, the company has been hired for programs to help schools teach artificial intelligence, robotics and automation.

The chancellor declined to answer questions about his relationship with his brother’s consulting firm.

The COIB “has almost never granted an exemption to a public official to undertake official action for the benefit of a person or company” with which he or she is associated, Miller said.

The latest revelation comes amid at least four corruption investigations into Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, involving the leadership of the NYPD and the Department of Education.

This month, the FBI raided the Harlem home that Chancellor Banks shares with his fiancée, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, and confiscated both of their cell phones.

They also seized the phones of Terence Banks and another brother, Philip Banks, Adams’ deputy mayor for public safety.

DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer would not comment Friday on why Banks did not have a COIB waiver to meet with Lindsay, but sought to separate the chancellor from the vendor’s lucrative assignments, suggesting that 21stCentEd’s hiring was beyond his control.

“All expenses of Marlon Lindsay-owned businesses” come from district offices or schools for amounts less than $25,000 — the threshold that would require going through the contract process, he said.