Federal charges allege Frank Carone accepted bribes to direct a $6.8 million shelter contract to a Queens hotel owner.
The chief of staff of former New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with accepting $120,000 in bribes in exchange for directing a city homeless shelter contract to a Queens hotel owner, according to an indictment unsealed on Wednesday.
Frank Carone worked as Adams’s chief of staff during his first year in office and was a close adviser who helped fundraise for the mayor’s failed reelection bid last year.
The indictment charges Carone, his brother Anthony Carone, as well as the Queens hotel owner, Yan Po Zhu, and Crystal Chen, Zhu’s assistant. They are charged with several offenses, including bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering.
The defendants were arrested on Wednesday and are expected to appear at a federal court in Brooklyn in the afternoon.
According to the indictment, Carone pushed the Department of Social Services to accept Zhu’s hotel, Microtel Inn by Wyndham, to house illegal immigrants during the border crisis in 2022, when southern states were sending buses of illegal immigrants to New York. The city had instituted a program to contract local hotels to house illegal immigrants.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
