Longtime Eric Adams ally Frank Carone indicted on federal bribery charges

BROOKLYN (CN) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday indicted Frank Carone, a former top official in New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, on charges he took bribes from Chinese nationals to steer contracts for migrant shelters to a Queens hotel.

In a 29-page indictment filed in the Eastern District of New York, the government accuses Frank Carone, his brother Anthony Carone and two Chinese nationals — Crystal Chen and Yan Po Zhu — of executing “a scheme to exploit the city’s migrant crisis for profit.”

“Specifically, in his official capacity as chief of staff, F. Carone agreed to accept a series of bribe payments from Zhu and Chen through A. Carone,” prosecutors claim. “In exchange, F. Carone agreed to steer a multimillion-dollar emergency shelter contract to the Microtel owned by Zhu and managed by Chen.”

In total, Frank Carone is accused of taking approximately $120,000 from Zhu and Chen, which prosecutors say was distributed to him by paying his personal credit card bills and through fund transfers to a law firm owned by his brother. The Microtel in Queens’ Long Island City neighborhood ultimately received about $6.8 million from the shelter contracts.

Anthony Carone was the middleman, according to the government. He’s accused of helping his brother launder the bribery payments through a sham retainer agreement with Zhu.

“As alleged in the indictment, the defendants exploited the unprecedented migrant crisis in New York City for their own personal gain,” First Assistant United States Attorney Michael Considine said in a statement Wednesday. “The defendants engaged in a bribery scheme to secure a migrant shelter contract worth millions of dollars from a city agency funded in part by billions of federal dollars. Frank Carone and his brother Anthony Carone are also charged with evading taxes on the proceeds of that scheme.”

The indictment contains 13 counts in total. Frank Carone is charged with 10, including conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, federal program bribery, use of interstate facilities to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, obstruction of justice, subscribing to a false tax return and three counts of honest services wire fraud.

In a statement to Courthouse News, Frank Carone’s lawyer Arthur Aidala said it was “a sad day for our criminal justice system.”

“It epitomizes the government first finding a target and then spending three years and enormous taxpayer resources to find a crime,” Aidala said. “After intense investigations over many years, all the government was able to come up with was this weak indictment based on purely circumstantial evidence that’s not worth the paper upon which it’s printed.

“Everyone who knows the Carone brothers knows they do things the right way,” Aidala continued. “That’s why it took over three years for them to come up with something that they could put on paper. We look forward to appearing before a jury and obtaining a swift acquittal.”

Frank Carone and his co-defendants will be arraigned on Wednesday afternoon. The government is not seeking detention, but encouraged the court in a letter to impose “stringent” bail conditions to ensure they do not flee or destroy evidence.

It’s the latest corruption scandal of several to emerge from Adams’ City Hall. Another former top aide to Adams, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, has been twice indicted on long-running bribery and money laundering schemes that involved her supposedly using her influence for cash, catering and a speaking role on Hulu’s “Godfather of Harlem.”

Lewis-Martin is also being represented by Aidala.

Adams himself was at the center of a federal corruption case until it was unceremoniously dropped by President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice in 2025.

Carone stepped down from his City Hall post in late 2022. He was previously investigated in 2024 for suspected dealing with a priest at a Brooklyn church.

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