Feds Probe Frank Carone, Adams Confidant With Industry Ties

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Frank Carone, a longtime Brooklyn power broker and former chief of staff to ex-mayor Eric Adams, is under federal investigation.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are scrutinizing Carone’s business dealings and his time inside City Hall as part of a long-running corruption inquiry, according to the New York Times. The probe has been active since at least early 2024 and could still end without charges.

The investigation’s full scope remains unclear. But if it produces an indictment, it would add another hit to the legacy of the Adams administration, which was battered by overlapping corruption probes into top aides and allies.

Carone, a lawyer and dominant figure in Brooklyn Democratic circles, was one of Adams’s closest political confidants for more than a decade. He played a central role in Adams’s 2021 mayoral campaign and served as chief of staff during the mayor’s first year in office before decamping for the private sector.

After leaving City Hall in January 2023, Carone launched Oaktree Solutions, a consulting and lobbying firm that quickly attracted clients across multiple industries. In May 2024, federal prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas to several of those clients after obtaining the firm’s bank records, according to people with knowledge of the inquiry. The subpoenaed clients spanned a range of businesses, including real estate.

Later in 2024, investigators appeared to focus more closely on real estate partnerships and other business ventures tied to Carone, one person familiar with the matter told the Times.

In a statement, Carone denied wrongdoing, attributing the investigation to political animus and

resentment over his success. The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment.

The probe also brushes up against Carone’s former law firm, Abrams Fensterman, which has

been linked in civil litigation to sprawling insurance fraud schemes alleged by Geico. Neither Carone nor the firm has been charged with wrongdoing, and both have said they were victims of fraud, not participants.

— Holden Walter-Warner