The Institutional Capture Graph — Four Nexus Types, One Network

Hover any node to trace its connections. Click to navigate. Toggle nexus types to overlay layers.

The Network Is Not a Hierarchy — It Is a Response System

Traditional corruption investigations map organizations top-down: find the boss, trace the orders, follow the money. This network does not work that way. It is threat-responsive — each nexus activates when another is under pressure, routing around the attack.

When Kevin Mok burned Banks’s Wayne County police infrastructure, Banks filed false reports in Grosse Pointe Woods — a different jurisdiction, a different police nexus, the same function.

The network has four nexus types, each with its own center of gravity, its own institutional protection, and its own method of weaponization.

Nexus 1: Education Fraud — The Revenue Engine

Center of gravity: Brian Banks through The Purpose Group Michigan LLC

Banks operates two charter schools that collectively move millions in taxpayer funds through a management company where he is the sole registered agent.

Three percent math proficiency means roughly 11 of 362 children can do grade-level math. That is not a struggling school. That is a revenue extraction operation wearing a school’s skin.

MacDowell ran a $967,964 operating deficit in FY2024-25, covered by drawing down its fund balance. The check register shows $13,970 in gift-card-labeled payments in a single fiscal year, including one $9,945 check.

DPSCD authorized the second school in July 2025 — citing “claimed improvement at MacDowell.” The person who made the “30% proficiency gains” claim was Nicole Wells Stallworth, the Board Chair, not an independent evaluator. On a base of 3%, a 30% gain is approximately three additional children.

The Credential-Washing Board

Every bar complaint filed in this investigation corresponds to a board member of one of Banks’s schools:

The school boards are the credential-washing mechanism. Legal professionals lend their licenses to make a convicted felon look legitimate. The felon’s website lists him as “Dr. Brian Banks, J.D., Ph.D.” — the J.D. was never admitted to the bar.

Nexus 2: Political Capture — The Protection Layer

Center of gravity: Mayor Mary Sheffield + Wayne County Executive Warren Evans

Banks does not hold elected office. He does not need to. He is endorsed by every power center:

Gay-Dagnogo’s move from DPSCD board to City Ombudsman is the quid pro quo — she authorized Banks’s schools, then got a city appointment. She announced Purpose Charter Academy’s development team in Chalkbeat (Sep 2025).

The Money Pipeline

Inner Link Graphics — one print shop — received $98,291 from Banks-connected committees:

Gloria McCastle — one individual — was paid $20,410 across five committees: Banks for Senate ($9,450), Bank on Banks PAC ($3,650), David Knezek State Senate ($5,000), Tenisha Yancey ($1,310), and Gay-Dagnogo’s Strong Women Lead PAC ($1,000). She bridges Banks to Gay-Dagnogo through shared campaign payments.

Banks Strategy and Consultants was paid $15,750 by Yancey’s campaign and $20,000 by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. Banks was not Yancey’s supporter — he was her paid consultant. She became a judge. Return on investment.

Two Convicted Endorsers

Two of Banks’s 2016 Senate campaign endorsers were later convicted of federal corruption:

Spivey introduced the FBI informant to other unnamed council members, then warned targets and leaked the source’s identity when the FBI approached him about cooperating.

Nexus 3: Police Weaponization — The Enforcement Arm

Center of gravity: Police Chief Todd Bettison

Todd Bettison is the permanent Detroit Police Chief (appointed Feb 2025 by Duggan). He is also the Secretary of the Detroit Public Safety Academy (DPSA) board — a charter school authorized by Eastern Michigan University. He uses his official city email (bettisont239@detroitmi.gov) for board business.

The police chief sits on a charter school board. This is the structural bridge between police weaponization and education fraud.

Active OIG Investigation — September 2026

As of September 16, 2026, Bettison is under investigation by Detroit’s Office of Inspector General for:

• Calling activist Jahdante Smith on August 5, 2026, requesting he remove social media photos of Mayor Sheffield with ex-boyfriend Marvin Walker
• Police subsequently detained Smith and seized his phone under a separate warrant
• Bettison denied the seizure was connected to his call
• The FBI is now handling the investigation (per Free Press sources)
• DPD referred its investigation into both Smith and Walker to an outside agency

The police chief used police authority to protect the mayor’s personal reputation. This is the same pattern Kevin’s case documents — police power deployed for personal or political purposes.

Operation Northern Hook — ONGOING FBI Probe

Operation Northern Hook is an ongoing FBI investigation into corruption within Detroit city government and the Detroit Police Department. First public case: United States v. Spivey, 2:21-cr-20490 (E.D. Mich.).

Banks’s former attorney, Todd Perkins (P55623, Perkins Law Group), represented two Operation Northern Hook targets:

Perkins also ran for Detroit mayor in 2025 (4th place, 5.35%). Gay-Dagnogo donated $750 to his campaign. Gasper Fiore (convicted bribery) donated $500.

Nexus 4: Legislative Pipeline — The Family Operation

Center of gravity: The Stallworth family

Thomas and Nicole together donated $1,250 to Banks’s 2022 campaign — among his most generous supporters. She hired him; he defended him at a rally for a man facing 8 felony charges.

The 2018 FBI Wiretap — Banks on Tape

In 2016, the FBI obtained a warrant to wiretap Gasper Fiore’s phone, targeting 18 people for extortion, wire fraud, bribery, and conspiracy to distribute marijuana. Banks was a “target subject.”

FBI Special Agent Robert Beeckman wrote in the sworn affidavit:

“Fiore is involved in bid-rigging with legislator Brian Banks.”

The wiretap recorded conversations between Banks and Fiore discussing:

• Banks’s efforts to help Fiore secure an MDOT contract
• How Banks could advocate for Fiore with a “high-ranking police official”
• Whether Fiore’s daughter Jennifer would stop pushing legislative amendments if Fiore got the contract

Jennifer Fiore — Gasper’s daughter — was simultaneously dating Detroit Councilman Gabe Leland, who approved $2M+ in city contracts for her connected companies. When Leland asked Police Chief James Craig about the FBI towing investigation, Craig contacted the FBI.

The wiretap documents were accidentally released in 2018, then quickly resealed. They listed Banks, Judge Vonda Evans, Sheriff Benny Napoleon, Councilman Leland, and Rep. Tinsley-Talabi as target subjects.

The FBI Files Are Now in Civil Court

In Area Towing v. Sollars, 2:19-cv-10989 (E.D. Mich.), Area Towing subpoenaed the FBI wiretap files in March 2025. The court ordered the FBI to produce unredacted copies (Sep 3, 2025). Fiore tried to intervene and seal the files — denied by Judge Linda V. Parker (Dec 2025). Fiore was deposed December 29, 2025 and pled the Fifth to nearly every question. The court ordered him to answer by March 6, 2026.

The FBI wiretap files containing Banks’s conversations are now in the civil case record.

The Banks PAC Treasurer — MDOC #443789

Joseph Holland — Banks’s “longtime associate” and treasurer of the Bank on Banks for Michigan PAC — is MDOC prisoner #443789:

The PAC shares a mailing address with Banks’s home and shares a PO box with Banks’s Wayne County commissioner campaign. It owes $14,500 in fines for failing to file campaign finance reports. The Secretary of State referred it to the Attorney General in May 2022.

A convicted cocaine dealer manages campaign finances for a 9-time convicted felon who runs schools for 362 predominantly Black children.

Master Federal Case Registry

These are all connected federal cases in the Eastern District of Michigan. Every case touches the same network.

Current USAO: Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. (confirmed Dec 2025). His office inherits all ongoing investigations.

The Institutional Localization Principle

Traditional corruption hides behind jurisdictional boundaries. This network cannot — because its members hold positions in institutions with institutional superiors who are now on notice.

When a board member is notified, their university is notified. When a judge is notified, their chief judge is notified. When an AAG is notified, the AG’s office is notified. The bad actors cannot hide because they are institutionally localized — their positions are their prisons.

This page will continue expanding as the investigation develops. Each node added to the graph becomes visible to every other node already mapped.

Every name on this page appears in public records. Every fact is sourced to court documents, campaign finance filings, FOIA responses, news reporting, or government databases. Named here? Something wrong? Contact me — truth matters more than being right.

Sources: M.L. Elrick / Detroit Free Press, Rita Williams / Clutch Justice, BridgeDetroit, Chalkbeat Detroit, TransparencyUSA, CourtListener, MDOC OTIS, Michigan SOS Campaign Finance, NCES, SchoolDigger.