A federal judge in Brooklyn tentatively set an August trial date in the corruption case against Frank Carone, a high-ranking member of former New York Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, who was indicted last week in an alleged bribery scheme.
U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto said the trial would begin in late summer but acknowledged that the case’s complexity could ultimately delay the start date.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik said the government plans to provide the defendants with a “voluminous” amount of discovery, totaling millions of pages.
The government is also extracting data from devices that law enforcement recently seized, Winik added.
Still, a lawyer for Carone, Andrew Goldstein, pushed for the trial to begin “as soon as possible,” adding that the federal government has spent years “digging into every aspect of our client’s life.”
“We’re going to push to keep the August trial date,” Goldstein said. “If it moves, we are going to push to keep it as soon as possible.”
Federal prosecutors claim Carone, 56, the former chief of staff to Adams, accepted a series of bribes from a hotel owner in exchange for steering a multimillion-dollar contract to operate the hotel as an emergency migrant shelter in 2022 at the height of the migrant crisis.
City officials repeatedly rejected the hotel owner, Yan Po Zhu, over the hotel’s small size and location in Long Island City until Carone intervened, according to the indictment.
In June 2022, federal prosecutors said, Zhu began leveraging his relationship with Carone to obtain the lucrative contract.
Prosecutors said Zhu invited Carone to his Nassau County residence on June 3, when they posed for a photo in front of a pool and another inside a wine cellar lined with dozens of bottles, including Ace of Spades champagne, which can cost hundreds to several thousand dollars per bottle.
That evening, Zhu texted Carone seeking help in getting the $6.8 million contract, the indictment alleges. Over the following months, prosecutors allege, Zhu frequently socialized with Carone and sought his assistance in landing the contract.
“My brother 29-12 40 Ave please help me get done we need to refinance,” Zhu texted Carone in September, referring to the hotel address.
Soon after, Zhu began making monthly payments to Carone, prosecutors alleged, totaling $120,000.
Carone is alleged to have then used the ill-gotten gains for his personal benefit, including paying off credit card bills.
To conceal the scheme and hide the bribes, prosecutors say, Zhu entered into a sham retainer agreement with Carone’s younger brother, Anthony Carone, 54, who is alleged to have laundered the payments through his law firm.
In 2022 alone, Anthony Carone funneled money to his brother to the tune of $500,000 through his law firm bank account, prosecutors said.
Anthony Carone, Zhu and his business manager, Crystal Chen, were also named in the 13-count indictment.
All four defendants have pleaded not guilty.
