Former Eric Adams aide indicted in migrant housing bribery scheme

Federal prosecutors unsealed a 13-count indictment in Brooklyn on June 24, 2026, charging Frank V. Carone, the former chief of staff to Mayor Eric Adams, along with Anthony J. Carone, Crystal Chen, and Yan Po Zhu, also known as Andy Zhu, in a scheme tied to New York City’s migrant housing crisis. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said the case includes fraud, bribery, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and tax fraud.

Investigators say the alleged bribe total was $120,000, funneled through Anthony J. Carone’s law firm from the owner of a Microtel Inn by Wyndham and tied to an effort to influence a city shelter contract. Reporting has placed the contract value at about $6.8 million, with the work aimed at emergency housing for migrants in New York City. NBC New York reported that Carone and others were charged with taking more than $100,000 in bribes to steer the contract to a Queens hotel.

The case reaches into the inner circle that surrounded City Hall under Adams, where Carone was one of the mayor’s most trusted aides. Brooklyn federal prosecutors have described the conduct as part of a larger profit scheme built around the city’s 2022 migrant influx, when buses carrying migrants from southern states intensified pressure on New York’s shelter system and created a lucrative market for hotel operators and middlemen seeking city business.

Authorities said all four defendants were arrested on June 24, 2026 and were scheduled to be arraigned that afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marcia M. Henry. Newsday reported that Frank Carone was arrested at his Manhattan home, while Fox 5 New York reported that the broader FBI sweep also included raids on homes of several former NYPD officials, adding to signs that the inquiry reaches beyond a single hotel deal.

The charges sharpen the focus on how emergency housing money moved through Adams-era political and business relationships as the city scrambled to shelter thousands of newly arrived migrants. Prosecutors are not treating the matter as a one-off bribery case. By adding obstruction of justice and tax fraud to the indictment, they signaled a broader corruption probe that now extends into the networks around City Hall and the contractors who benefited from the migrant emergency.