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.
