Exclusive | NYC's ex-top cop's twin pretended to be him, ordered protection for club's with 'illegal activities': Whistleblower
Former NYC Police Commissioner Edward Caban’s twin brother allegedly impersonated him at precinct stationhouses in a brazen scheme to scuttle cops from probing “illegal activity” at clubs that were paying a protection fee, according to a complaint filed by a whistleblower NYPD lieutenant.James Caban showed up at the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights at least five times and “falsely” led cops to believe he was his brother “to influence precinct enforcement activities related to lounges and other forms of nightlife entertainment,” according to the bombshell complaint, filed Thursday with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.The Cabans are 58-year-old twins from the Bronx.James Caban, a former police officer, was fired from the department two decades ago after a fight with a taxi driver.
Mayor Adams appointed Edward Caban to commissioner in 2023 but he resigned in September 2024 after his phone was confiscated amid a federal probe involving club enforcement.Precinct commander Aneudy Castillo and his subordinates “facilitated this deception, allowing officers to believe that orders were coming from the police commissioner himself,” according to the complaint.“The CO would always say ‘Caban is coming,’” former 34th Precinct Integrity Control Officer Lt.Emelio Rodrigues, who filed the complaint, told The Post.
“We just thought it was the commissioner.I saluted him.
Other cops also saluted him.” Caban wore business casual clothes as his commissioner brother did.He didn’t salute back but he also never said he wasn’t the top cop, Rodrigues said.While at the precinct, James Caban met with Inspector Castillo and his Special Operations Lt.
Michael Disanto.The meetings took place between January 2023 and September 2024, according to the complaint. Rodrigues told The Post he saw James Caban at the precinct “over five times” and after the visits, Castillo and DiSanto would allegedly tell their cops not to investigate 3...