Frank Carone, former chief of staff to ex-NYC Mayor Eric Adams, arrested in corruption investigation

The FBI on Wednesday morning arrested Frank Carone, the former chief of staff to former Mayor Eric Adams, at his Manhattan home, and three others as part of a corruption investigation.

Frank Carone, his brother, Anthony Carone, Queens hotel owner Yan Po Zhu, and one other person were to be arraigned at Brooklyn federal court in the afternoon.

Allegations against Frank Carone

According to an indictment newly unsealed by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, the Carones and Zhu "devised and executed a scheme to exploit the city's migrant crisis for profit."

As the Adams administration was converting city hotels into migrant shelters from 2022 into 2023 with billions of dollars in federal grants, prosecutors allege Frank Carone, who served as chief of staff from January 2022 through December of that year, accepted a series of bribe payments and in exchange "agreed to steer a multimillion-dollar emergency shelter contract" to Zhu's hotel.

A spokesperson for former Mayor Adams said, in part, "Frank Carone has dedicated decades of his life to public service, the legal profession, and helping countless individuals, businesses, and charitable organizations throughout New York. This is an ongoing legal matter and my prayers are with his family."  

Frank Carone's attorney refutes the allegations

Arthur Aidala, Frank Carone's attorney, issued a statement just after noon on Wednesday.

"Today's indictment is 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 know they do things the right way; 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," he added.

Carone's arrest comes on the same day that a joint investigation between the NYPD and FBI resulted in the raids of three current and former NYPD officials, all ex-associates of Adams.