Former NYC Mayor’s Chief of Staff Charged in Bribery Case
A former chief of staff to Eric Adams, who was the Mayor of New York City, faces serious charges involving more than $100,000 in bribes linked to a city contract for emergency immigrant housing at a hotel in Queens. This was revealed in a federal indictment filed recently.
Details from the indictment highlight charges of bribery, wire fraud, money laundering, and other allegations against Anthony and Frank Carone, who are both attorneys. Additionally, the owner of the hotel, Yang Po Zhu, and hotel employee Crystal Chen have also been implicated.
According to prosecutors, Frank received about $120,000 from Zhu and Chen in return for facilitating the emergency shelter contract, with the transaction funneled through a law firm owned by his brother, Anthony.
This contract emerged as a response to the immigration crisis seen in 2022 under the Biden administration, particularly when several governors from southern states were sending undocumented immigrants to New York by bus. Initially, the city’s Department of Social Services rejected the hotel’s application for hosting immigrants due to pushback regarding an already packed shelter situation in the community.
Despite this, New York City ended up leasing the entire hotel for over a year, receiving $1.8 billion in federal funding to operate it as an emergency shelter during 2022 and 2023. The city has since faced an unprecedented increase in the number of asylum seekers.
However, Arthur Aidala, the Carone brothers’ attorney, criticized the indictment, calling it “weak” and asserting that it relies on “purely circumstantial evidence that is not worth putting on paper.”
Aidala remarked, “Today’s indictment is a sad day for our criminal justice system. This symbolizes the government spending three years and millions of taxpayer dollars to first find the target and then discover the crime.”
The Carone brothers are set to appear in a federal court in Brooklyn later today.
Frank was significantly involved in Eric Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign and became his chief of staff in 2022. He has been criticized for several ethical violations, such as organizing public meetings at private venues, including clubs and upscale restaurants. More recently, he founded a political consulting firm in 2023.
