more than 200,000<\/a> migrants began moving to New York City, and the government was required to house them under a decades-old \u201cright-to-shelter\u201d mandate.<\/p>\nAs the city began renting hotels to house migrants, Mr. Zhu hired a consultant to seek an emergency contract from the city\u2019s Department of Social Services for the Microtel, which had 75 rooms. But city officials responded that they already had several shelters in Long Island City \u2014 where community members opposed migrant housing \u2014 and refused Mr. Zhu\u2019s requests.<\/p>\n
Around the same time, in June 2022, Mr. Zhu cultivated a relationship with Frank Carone, then chief of staff to the mayor, inviting him to socialize at his home in Nassau County on Long Island, the prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
The indictment included photos of the two men and others by a swimming pool in front of what appears to be a mansion and inside a wine cellar. The indictment said the photos were taken June 3, 2022; that evening, it said, Mr. Zhu texted Frank Carone asking for help obtaining a shelter contract.<\/p>\n
As the officials overseeing the shelter program continued to resist Mr. Zhu\u2019s entreaties, he continued to socialize with Mr. Carone and ask him to exert his influence, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n
It described texts between the men: \u201cMy brother 29-12 40 Ave please help me get done we need to refinance,\u201d Mr. Zhu wrote on Sept. 26, 2022, listing the Microtel\u2019s address.<\/p>\n
The next day, Anthony Carone texted Mr. Zhu, \u201cI want to talk to you about LIC,\u201d an apparent reference to the Long Island City hotel, the indictment said. A day later, Anthony Carone met Mr. Zhu at a Manhattan social club, and then the hotel owner visited Frank Carone at his home in the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn on Oct. 1, the prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
Soon after, Mr. Zhu and Ms. Chen began making monthly payments to Frank Carone through a law firm bank account controlled by Anthony Carone, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
Later that fall, an official described in the indictment as \u201cCity Official #2,\u201d the first deputy commissioner at the city\u2019s Department of Homeless Services, emailed staff who had opposed giving a contract to Mr. Zhu with the Microtel\u2019s address and contact information for Ms. Chen.<\/p>\n
He wrote that the information had \u201ccome directly from the top \u2026. I know it is in LIC, but we should assume it is approved.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few weeks later, the city\u2019s contracting agency issued a letter of intent to award an emergency shelter contract for the Microtel that ultimately resulted in payments of more than $6.8 million, the indictment said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Zhu and Ms. Chen described their $10,000 monthly bribe payments to the account controlled by Anthony Carone as legal fees, executing a \u201csham retainer agreement,\u201d according to the indictment.<\/p>\n
Anthony Carone did not inform his law partners that he was facilitating payments from Mr. Zhu through a law firm account and \u201cfunneling those payments\u201d to Frank Carone in various ways, the indictment said.<\/p>\n
Anthony Carone also used the account for payments from other clients Frank Carone had referred while he was Mr. Adams\u2019s chief of staff. Anthony Carone sent most of that money to his brother as well, the prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
The indictment said that both Carone brothers instructed Frank Carone\u2019s personal assistant to transfer money from the law firm account to pay Frank Carone\u2019s credit card charges for travel, dining, fitness memberships, clothing and other personal items. At that time, neither Frank Carone nor the assistant were affiliated with the firm, the indictment said.<\/p>\n
After Frank Carone resigned as chief of staff to the mayor, Anthony Carone sent money from his law firm\u2019s account to an account his brother had at a different law firm.<\/p>\n
Frank and Anthony Carone were also accused of failing to report the payments from Mr. Zhu and the other client payments as income to the I.R.S.<\/p>\n
In 2024, after learning they were under investigation, the brothers drafted a backdated loan agreement from Anthony Carone to Frank Carone in an effort to explain the payments, later providing the document to federal investigators, the indictment said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, when the investigation was first disclosed, Frank Carone issued a statement denying wrongdoing. He ascribed any scrutiny of his conduct to his political associations, jealousy over his success and \u201cstereotypical assumptions\u201d based on his Italian American roots and Brooklyn upbringing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaseless accusations are nothing new to me,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n
Like other of Mr. Adams\u2019s former aides, Mr. Carone now faces legal jeopardy even as the former mayor moves on with his life. A spokesman for Mr. Adams issued a statement Wednesday morning defending the former mayor\u2019s chief of staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrank Carone has dedicated decades of his life to public service, the legal profession and helping countless individuals, businesses and charitable organizations throughout New York,\u201d the spokesman, Todd Shapiro, said in the statement. \u201cThis is an ongoing legal matter, and my prayers are with his family.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Carone investigation was one among nearly a dozen federal and state corruption inquiries focused on members of the mayor\u2019s inner circle or his associates \u2014 in addition to the since-dismissed indictment of Mr. Adams himself.<\/p>\n
Not all have resulted in charges. But another longtime close aide to Mr. Adams, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, is facing five indictments<\/a> obtained by the Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office. Those prosecutors accused her of using her position as Mr. Adam\u2019s chief mayoral adviser to fast-track approvals from city agencies and steer contracts for business people in exchange for gifts including cash, crab cakes, home renovations, a television appearance and a pair of diamond earrings.<\/p>\nMs. Lewis-Martin has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
The defendants who were arrested on Wednesday were expected to appear in federal court in Brooklyn later in the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frank V. Carone, a Brooklyn power broker and longtime close associate of former Mayor Eric Adams of New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[146238,23,277929,311270,277931,146239,48218,311271,1999,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-723672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-adams","tag-america","tag-bribery-and-kickbacks","tag-carone","tag-corruption-institutional","tag-eric-l","tag-federal-bureau-of-investigation","tag-frank-attorney","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}