1. Brian A Benjamin was born on December 9,1976 and is an American politician and businessman who was the lieutenant governor of New York from September 2021 until he resigned on April 12,2022.
39 Facts About Brian Benjamin
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Brian Benjamin was born in Harlem Hospital in Harlem, New York City, the son of Caribbean immigrants who worked union jobs.
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Brian Benjamin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in public policy from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
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Brian Benjamin was an alumni-elected trustee of Brown University and spent three years at Morgan Stanley as an investment advisor.
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Brian Benjamin was an early supporter of Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2007.
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Brian Benjamin has said that after Obama's election, the infrastructure of "Harlem4Obama" contributed to Brian Benjamin's organization, called "Young Professionals United for Change," which instituted a mentoring program at the Wadleigh School and organized young people.
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In 2012, Brian Benjamin was an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention and raised money for his reelection.
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In 2010, Brian Benjamin became a managing partner at Genesis Companies, a minority business enterprise building affordable housing in Harlem.
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Brian Benjamin was involved with partnerships with First Corinthians Baptist Church in creating the Dream Center on 119th and the Hope Center on 114th.
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In 2016, Brian Benjamin became the Chair of Manhattan Community Board 10 in Central Harlem in Manhattan.
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In 2017, when Brian Benjamin was the managing partner of the Genesis Companies real estate firm in Harlem, and at the same time on the verge of becoming the New York State Senate Democratic nominee, his firm was sued by its co-investor in a legal dispute over an alleged scheme to divert revenue from a fire sale by Abyssinian Development to the investors of 31 properties.
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Brian Benjamin then ran to succeed him in Harlem's District 30 in the NY State Senate.
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Wright, a close ally of Brian Benjamin, accusing him of "voter suppression" in his bid to install Brian Benjamin in office.
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Brian Benjamin was at the time the fiance of a woman who had worked in Wright's office.
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Critics alleged that the process was controlled by Brian Benjamin's allies, including the Manhattan Democratic Party chairman.
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Brian Benjamin was sworn into the seat on June 5,2017, and pledged to protect progressive values.
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The district Brian Benjamin represented in the Senate covered most of central Harlem and included parts of the neighborhoods of East Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Morningside Heights, Washington Heights, the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, and Yorkville in Manhattan.
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Brian Benjamin said he consulted for his former firm but asserted that he was not compensated.
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Brian Benjamin repeatedly denied receiving any outside income since his election.
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Brian Benjamin introduced a bill to close Rikers in three years.
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In 2018, Brian Benjamin urged constituents to keep warm during cold months while serving on the advisory board of Genesis; Genesis received hundreds of complaints from tenants with heating-related problems in their apartments.
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Brian Benjamin sponsored a bill to divest New York's Public Pension fund from private prisons.
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In December 2018, Brian Benjamin was named chair of the Revenue and Budget Subcommittee.
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The Washington Post reported that Brian Benjamin's legislation was key in getting Bank of America to drop their investments.
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Also in 2019, Brian Benjamin championed a bill that would have allowed felons who had completed their sentences to serve on juries.
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In January 2021, Brian Benjamin was named chair of the Committee on Revenue and Budget.
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Also that month, Brian Benjamin proposed a bill to make it easier for released ex-convicts to obtain a state-issued ID when they leave jail.
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Brian Benjamin sponsored a bill to change parole laws, so that parole violations such as testing positive for drugs, failing to report, and failing to notify of a change in address would not lead to incarceration.
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Brian Benjamin has tweeted his support for defunding the police.
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In January 2021, the New York Daily News reported that Brian Benjamin was earning up to $50,000 a year as a board member of NextPoint, a company led by a Wall Street executive who came under fire for his role in the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, and that Brian Benjamin acquired up to $250,000 in NextPoint stock.
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In 2021, Brian Benjamin ran for the Democratic nomination for New York City comptroller.
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Former governor David Paterson endorsed Brian Benjamin, as did former US Representative Charles Rangel and New York State Senator John Liu.
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Brian Benjamin was sworn in on September 9,2021, so that a special election to fill the vacancy in his State Senate seat could be held concurrently with the November general election.
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Brian Benjamin is the second Black lieutenant governor in the history of the State of New York.
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Brian Benjamin was questioned about a dozen instances when Brian Benjamin sought thousands of dollars in travel reimbursements as a state senator while using a campaign account for these expenses, including payments that were made outside the state of New York.
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In March 2022, The New York Times reported that the FBI was investigating whether Brian Benjamin played a role in funneling fraudulent contributions to his 2021 campaign for New York City Comptroller, and that they would be issuing subpoenas to his campaign advisers.
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Federal prosecutors allege that in 2019, Brian Benjamin was a state senator, he used his position to steer a $50,000 state grant to a nonprofit, Friends of Public School Harlem, run by Harlem real estate developer and lawyer Gerald Migdol, who in turn arranged thousands of dollars in unlawful "straw donor" campaign contributions to Brian Benjamin's campaign for city comptroller.
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On January 17,2025, the United States Attorney's Office dropped its case against Brian Benjamin, including the charges of bribery and federal wire fraud.
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In 2014, Brian Benjamin appeared in Oprah Winfrey Network's reality television show Love in the City as the boyfriend of a woman who, three years later, alleged that he stole some items from her.