Prosecutors said Frank Carone accepted about $120,000 in bribes to steer a city contract to a 75-room Queens hotel, in a case tied to New York City’s migrant crisis.
Former Eric Adams chief of staff Frank Carone was arrested Wednesday as part of an alleged bribery scheme tied to a city contract, along with his brother Anthony Carone, a Queens hotel owner and an employee of the hotel owner, according to two people familiar with the matter. Federal prosecutors said Carone accepted about $120,000 in bribes in exchange for steering a contract to Microtel, a 75-room hotel in Queens, in what they described as a scheme to profit from New York City’s migrant crisis. Carone was a key figure in Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign, served as Adams’ chief of staff in 2022 and later formed a political consulting firm in 2023. His lawyer, Arthur Aidala, called the indictment “weak” and said it was “based on purely circumstantial evidence that’s not worth the paper upon which it is printed.” In a separate statement, Adams spokesperson Todd Shapiro said Carone had “dedicated decades of his life to public service, the legal profession, and helping countless individuals, businesses, and charitable organizations throughout New York.” Federal agents also searched the homes of current and former New York Police Department leaders Wednesday in a separate bribery investigation stemming from an inquiry into Jeffrey Maddrey, the chief of department under Adams. The FBI and NYPD executed warrants at the homes of NYPD Chief of Manhattan South James McCarthy, former Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard and Maddrey, though there was no public indication of arrests tied to those searches.