Frank Carone, a close friend and longtime political confidant to former New York Mayor Eric Adams, was arrested on a federal indictment Wednesday, the Daily News has learned.
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Carone’s brother, Anthony Carone, Yan Po Zhu, who owns a hotel in Long Island City, and Crystal Chen, who works for Zhu, were also arrested in what a source described as a “bribery scheme.”
The former City Hall chief of staff was arrested at his Manhattan home early Wednesday.
The indictment is expected to be unsealed in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday afternoon. The exact accusations against Carone were not immediately disclosed.
Carone, who served as Mayor Adams’ chief of staff and parlayed his ties with the former mayor into a lucrative consulting business, was being investigated by Brooklyn federal prosecutors for corruption, The New York Times reported earlier this year.
A federal grand jury was empaneled to hear the evidence in January.
Carone was also a partner behind the launch of the ex-New York City mayor’s controversial cryptocurrency token, according to sources.
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Carone, an attorney, has known the ex-mayor for decades and spearheaded Adams’ aborted reelection campaign. He left City Hall in December 2022.
Adams left office on Dec. 31 after a single term marred by multiple corruption scandals, including his own federal indictment.
Carone’s attorneys, Andrew Goldstein and Russel Capone, did not immediately comment on the arrest.
In January, when news of the investigation broke into public view, Carone called any potential charges “baseless” and said he was being politically targeted.
“As an Italian American who has grown up in the streets of Canarsie and to this day speaks with a full Brooklyn accent, I have withstood and overcome one stereotypical assumption after another for all of my life,” Carone said. “Anyone and everyone who actually knows me and has worked alongside me would say that I am conscientious and principled in how I comport myself and in all that I do.”
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This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
With Josephine Stratman