NEW YORK — Frank Carone, a close friend and longtime political confidant to former New York Mayor Eric Adams, was arrested on federal bribery charges Wednesday after he and three others, including his brother, were accused of manipulating the city’s migrant crisis for financial gain.

Carone is accused of illegally steering nearly $7 million in federal grant money to a Queens hotel owner in exchange for a $120,000 windfall.

Carone’s brother, Anthony Carone; Yan Po Zhu, who owns the hotel in Long Island City, and Crystal Chen, who works for Zhu, were arrested Wednesday morning along with Frank Carone.

The feds charge that the four suspects “devised and executed a scheme to exploit the city’s migrant crisis for profit” from June 2022 to December 2023.

Frank Carone allegedly accepted a series of bribes totally $120,000 from Zhu and Chu through his brother in exchange for steering the multi-million-dollar emergency migrant shelter contract to the hotel owned by Zhu. The bribes, feds claim, were funneled through a law firm where Anthony Carone is a partner.

Frank Carone became Adams’ chief of staff in January 2022 when the scheme allegedly began. He stepped down near the end of 2022 and went on to create a lobbying firm.

The former City Hall chief of staff was arrested at his Manhattan home early Wednesday.

Attorney Arthur Aidala, who is representing Carone, said the indictment “is a sad day for our criminal justice system.”

“It epitomizes the government first finding a target and then spending three years and enormous taxpayer resources to find a crime,” the attorney said. “After intense investigations over many years, all the government was able to come up with was this weak indictment based on purely circumstantial evidence that’s not worth the paper upon which it’s printed.”

“Everyone who knows the Carone brothers knows they do things the right way,” he added. “We look forward to appearing before a jury and obtaining a swift acquittal.”

The arrests come as the homes of three former and current high ranking NYPD officials with close ties to Adams were raided as part of a probe into a another suspected bribery scheme that also took place during the former mayor’s tenure.

When states along the Mexican border were busing immigrants to New York and other sanctuary cities, New York received more than $4 billion in federal grant money between 2022 and 2023 to create housing for the influx, court papers note.

During his stint as Adams’ chief of staff, Frank Carone helped steer a multi-million-dollar emergency shelter contract to the Microtel, a 75-room hotel on 40th Ave. near 29th St. in Long Island City in exchange for a series of bribes from Zhu and Chen, prosecutors say.

Zhu funneled the bribes through a law firm account controlled by Anthony Carone, according to the federal indictment.

Frank Carone used the $120,000 in bribes to pay his credit card bills, the feds allege.

Chen is a Chinese national who works for Zhu. The two men first hired a consultant to help Microtel get an emergency shelter contract with the city’s Department of Social Services but were told their hotel was not a viable option because the neighborhood already had several hotels with shelter contracts.

But Zhu did not give up, the feds say, reaching out to Frank Carone by text message on June 6, 2022, to ask “Who I need contact with?” and then clarifying his inquiry was about a shelter contract, the feds say.

“Ok, standby,” Carone wrote back.

The Carones and Zhu frequently socialized together, according to federal prosecutors, who recovered multiple photos of the Carones hanging out at Zhu’s luxurious Long Island home.

Carone asked then-New York City Department of Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins to reconsider his decision not to give Zhu a contract but the agency declined the petition again, noting the hotel was right next to another shelter, according to the indictment.

On Sept. 19, 2022, Zhu texted Frank Carone again about the emergency shelter program, asking about the same hotel, and saying, “Thank you my big guy,” evidence recovered during the probe shows.

Federal prosecutors said Frank Carone repeatedly went back to the Social Services Commissioner, asking that the Microtel get a migrant shelter contract, as Zhu was begging the Carone brothers for assistance.

In October 2022, after Zhu met Frank Carone at his Brooklyn home, Chen started making a series of monthly payments to Anthony Carone’s law firm, officials said.

Despite community opposition, the Department of Social Services, with Frank Carone’s urging, ultimately awarded Microtel the $6.8-million contract, the feds say.

Chen’s payments to Anthony Carone were disguised as a “retainer agreement,” the indictment says. He paid $10,000 a month to the law firm’s account for a total of $120,000.

Anthony Carone never told his partners about Zhu or the retainer agreement, prosecutors said.

“The boss completely trusts the two brothers,” Chen wrote in a text to an associate who was wiring the funds to Anthony Carone’s law firm. “In the end, it’s all about money and giving the two brothers a way out.”

Carone’s other attorneys, Andrew Goldstein and Russell Capone, who were both former federal public corruption prosecutors, said that the arrest of their client is “utterly misguided.”

“Frank Carone served the city of New York honorably,” they said in a statement. “He was instrumental in helping the city navigate an unprecedented migrant crisis, but had absolutely nothing to do with granting the temporary migrant shelter at the center of these charges. We believe a speedy trial is critical and the facts will vindicate Frank.”

Frank Carone was being investigated by Brooklyn federal prosecutors for corruption earlier this year, the New York Times reported. A federal grand jury was empaneled to hear 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.

Frank Carone, an attorney, has known the ex-mayor for decades and spearheaded Adams’ aborted reelection campaign. Adams left office on Dec. 31 after a single term marred by multiple corruption scandals, including his own federal indictment.

“Frank Carone has dedicated decades of his life to public service, the legal profession, and helping countless individuals, businesses, and charitable organizations throughout New York,” Todd Shapiro, a spokesman for Adams, said Wednesday. “This is an ongoing legal matter and my prayers are with his family.”

Carone’s attorneys, Andrew Goldstein and Russel Capone, did not immediately comment on the arrest.

In January, when news of the federal 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.”

Zhu donated $2,100 — the maximum allowable amount — to Adams’ re-election campaign in June 2023, and also threw him $2,000 to his 2021 campaign in December 2018, nearly two years before Adams formally launched his campaign.

Zhu listed himself as a developer at firm East Times Group. Chen, who listed herself as an office manager at the same firm, donated $250 to Adams’ campaign in September 2021.

The East Times Group could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

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