Frank Carone, formerly a top aide to ex-Mayor Adams and well-known Brooklyn Dems power broker, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a federal indictment charging him with money laundering, wire fraud and taking bribes from a hotel owner in the midst of the city’s 2022 migrant crisis, which prosecutors accused him of using to enrich himself.
The 13-count indictment, filed in the Eastern District of New York, charges Carone with accepting $120,000 in bribes from Long Island City hotel owner Yan Po Zhu and employee Crystal Chen in exchange for getting top City Hall officials to give their hotel, Microtel, a nearly $7 million city contract to house migrants at the height of the crisis.
It also charges Frank Carone’s brother, attorney Anthony Carone, with helping him take those bribes by funneling them through a law firm he owned, and Zhu and Chen with federal bribery. All had been arrested by the FBI early Wednesday morning.
“Defendants engaged in sweeping bribery schemes to exploit New York’s migrant crisis for their own personal benefit,” said government prosecutor Sara Winik, adding that Carone put his own wealth and status over serving the city government. “Defendant’s conduct in this case shows they believe the rules don’t apply to them.”
All were released after their Wednesday afternoon arraignment in front of Magistrate Judge Marcia Henry on various bond agreements. Frank Carone was released on a $2 million bond secured by his property in Boca Raton, Anthony Carone on a $500,000 bond, Chen on a $100,000 bond and Zhu on an $8 million bond, secured by a Long Island property and a promise he’ll wear an ankle monitor.
Feds allege Frank Carone profited off migrant crisis with associate’s hotel
Frank Carone exits U.S. District Court in Brooklyn with attorney Arthur Aidala on June 24, 2026.Photo by Dean Moses
Prosecutors allege that Zhu and Chen applied for their hotel to receive a city contract, where the city would pay them to provide 75 rooms worth of housing to migrants who had been dropped in New York City and didn’t have anywhere else to go. Their application was denied, with city officials repeatedly saying the location wouldn’t work, as there were already too many shelters in the area, and that it was too small.
Zhu and Chen then asked Frank Carone, whom they had befriended, to get the city to award Microtel the contract anyway, which, texts between Carone and the Microtel representatives and Carone and other government officials, show he took great lengths to accomplish, prosecutors allege.
The government pointed to texts between Carone and the Microtel owner where Carone said he’d talk to the mayor’s office about getting the hotel a contract and messages Carone sent to unnamed government officials continuing to push for the Microtel to be awarded a contract, even though those officials repeatedly told him that they had “consistently” declined to award the hotel a contract because of its location and small size and had “taken this [application] as far as it could go.”
In one message, Zhu writes, “thank you, my big guy” to Carone after asking Carone to help him get a city contract and other communications show city officials saying that Microtel had been given “priority” from “the top” after months of Carone pushing for it.
Anthony Carone.Photo by Dean Moses
The brothers deleted some of those texts after they learned of the investigation into them, prosecutors allege, which landed them charges of obstructing justice.
Carone’s attorney insists client’s innocence
Frank Carone’s attorney, Arthur Aidada, painted a very different picture of the situation outside the Brooklyn federal courthouse after the Wednesday arraignment. He suggested Carone’s prosecution was politically motivated, though it was unclear by whom, and claimed the indictment was “based on assumptions,” should be “ripped to shreds” and that Carone did nothing wrong.
“Our system of justice is supposed to be better than this,” Aidada said. “If you really look at the facts that are alleged here, there is not one fact that indicates Frank Carone did anything specific to influence anything in our government.”
Working with Adams was not Carone’s only government adjacent role. He offered legal advice to many in the Democratic party establishment for years, including when he was an attorney at Abrams and Festerman, a Brooklyn firm known for political lobbying. His brother also worked at the firm.
When reached for comment, the firm provided a statement through spokesperson Todd Shapiro, who also serves as a spokesperson for Eric Adams.
“The allegations against Frank V. Carone arise from conduct alleged to have occurred during his tenure as Chief of Staff to New York City Mayor Eric Adams,” says the statement, which emphasizes there was no relationship between the firm and Carone during the time of his alleged wrongdoing. “Abrams Fensterman had no involvement in the matters referenced in the indictment and is not a subject of the government’s allegations.”
Abrams Festerman has advised many campaigns and employed notorious figures in the county’s political scene, including former Brooklyn judge Frank Seddio, who has become the subject of various misconduct lawsuits and was previously a partner at the firm.
All four charged in the scheme were required to give up their passports and agree to travel restrictions that largely keep them within New York City and Long Island, though Frank Carone is allowed to travel to Florida and Anthony Carone to New Jersey.
The Carones, Chen and Zhu are due back in court at 10 a.m. on July 1.
Crystal Chen.Photo by Dean Moses