Overview
- Federal prosecutors say in a June 24 indictment that Frank Carone accepted $120,000 in disguised payments to help steer a roughly $6.8 million emergency migrant-shelter contract to a Long Island City hotel and charged him with bribery, money laundering and wire fraud.
- All four defendants pleaded not guilty and a Brooklyn judge tentatively set an Aug. 24 trial date but warned that the schedule is likely unrealistic given the case’s complexity.
- Prosecutors told the court they will produce a voluminous amount of material, including about four terabytes of electronic data, which must be reviewed and could delay the trial by months.
- Reporting identifies former Social Services commissioner Gary Jenkins as the City Official #1 referenced in the indictment and prosecutors say Carone directed Jenkins to approve the Microtel contract while hotel owner Yan Po 'Andy' Zhu funneled payments through a ‘sham retainer’ to Carone’s brother, who then paid Carone’s personal expenses.
- Pretrial disputes are intensifying because one defendant was allowed to attend the July 19 World Cup final while on an $8 million bond with electronic monitoring and defense lawyers are pressing for a fast trial even as they allege the government is withholding exculpatory material, raising the prospect of severance motions and further delay.