Frank Carone, a former top adviser to Mayor Eric Adams and a longtime political power broker, was arrested Wednesday as federal authorities and police carried out actions tied to several separate corruption investigations involving former NYPD officials.
Law enforcement sources said federal agents searched Carone’s home during an early-morning operation before taking him into custody in connection with an alleged bribery scheme.
Carone’s brother, Anthony Carrone, was also arrested during the raids. Sources said Frank, while working as Adams’ chief of staff, allegedly accepted a bribe linked to a homeless shelter contract involving a hotel and routed the payment through his brother.
Yan Po Zhu, who owns a hotel in Queens, and one of his employees, Crystal Chen, were also arrested in the alleged bribery case, according to law enforcement sources.
The specific charges were not immediately available.
The indictment is expected to be made public Wednesday afternoon in Brooklyn Federal Court.
In a separate matter, NYPD investigators searched the homes of former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey,
Assistant Chief James McCarthy and former top police spokesperson Tarik Sheppard, sources said. The NYPD said McCarthy has been placed on modified duty.
Those cases stemmed from the NYPD probe into Maddrey’s alleged misappropriation of funds, and the FBI was called in to assist in the investigation.
Sources said cops are looking into potential bribery and other official misconduct by former high-ranking police officials, including potential wrongdoing in how promotions and assignments were doled out.
No arrests were expected to be made Wednesday in connection with the NYPD raids.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many total arrests were made in the alleged Carrone bribery matter.
“This morning, members of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau and the FBI executed search warrants as part of a criminal investigation being pursued by the NYPD, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The investigation is ongoing and concerns conduct by former and current members of the NYPD,” said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
“When I became Police Commissioner, I promised New Yorkers that under my leadership the NYPD would conduct itself with integrity and that there would be a thorough investigation of any claim that members of service failed to meet that standard.
“This investigation and our actions this morning are part of the ongoing effort to fulfill that commitment and hold the Department to its highest ideals.”
Allegations of criminal wrongdoing have long dogged Carone, who served as Adams’ chief of staff for his first year.
The first federal case he was tangled in stemmed from accusations surrounding a Brooklyn church and Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello.
The feds slapped Gigantiello and Carone with subpoenas connected to the church’s finances in 2024.
Maddrey, meanwhile, was forced to resign from the department in late 2024 amid a sexual scandal where he was accused of forcing an underling to perform intimate favors in exchange for overtime.
McCarthy also previously had his phone seized by the feds, along with a number of other top NYPD officials.
