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Adams said the migrant crisis would ruin NYC. His top aides allegedly reaped a windfall.
By
Ryan Kost
Published Jun 25, 2026
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Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Ryan Kost
Published Jun 25, 2026
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In September 2023, then-Mayor Eric Adams warned that the migrant crisis would “destroy New York City.” He routinely blamed the Biden administration for the surge, and later claimed his corruption indictment was retaliation for that criticism.
But in the years after, city officials treated the same crisis as an opportunity, according to prosecutors, lawsuits and investigative reports.
The most recent case came on Wednesday, when Frank Carone, Adams' first chief of staff and one of his oldest allies, was arrested on federal charges accusing him of taking bribes to steer a migrant shelter contract to a Queens hotel.
As hundreds of thousands of migrants poured into New York City in 2022 and 2023, Carone was one of a handful of top Adams administration officials who allegedly exploited the crisis by taking kickbacks for emergency shelter and service contracts. The contracts that made several of the alleged schemes possible were, by design, easy to hand out and hard to oversee.
As the crisis spun up and the city struggled to shelter the migrants, the Adams administration turned to emergency contracts, no-bid deals that sidestep the usual competitive bidding process. Former Comptroller Brad Lander looked into their use and found that the contracts had ultimately cost the city tens of millions in taxpayer dollars.
According to state and federal prosecutors, a lot of that money ended up in the pockets of Adams’ allies.
In Carone’s case, prosecutors allege he used his position at City Hall to direct roughly $6.8 million in emergency shelter contracts to Microtel, a Long Island City hotel that the city's own Department of Social Services had already rejected due to neighborhood opposition. In exchange, the hotel's owner and a manager paid him about $120,000, routed through a bank account operated by his brother Anthony Carone, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday in Brooklyn. All four have pleaded not guilty.
Before him, there was Weihong Hu, a hotel operator who had bundled tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations for Adams and went on to receive millions in city contracts, according to an investigation by The City Reporter.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin, one of Adams’ longest-serving advisers and friends, is accused of a variety of corruption charges in state court. Prosecutors said Lewis-Martin, who called a lot of the shots at Adams’ City Hall, was essentially “open for business” for anyone looking to pay for favors.
The Manhattan DA’s office accused her of helping steer shelter contracts to property owners associated with developer Tian Ji Li. In exchange, the developer wired $50,000 to a company owned by Lewis-Martin’s son, prosecutors said.
Timothy Pearson, a close friend of Adams whom the former mayor tapped to help oversee the city’s migrant shelter contracts, was also being eyed by the feds, according to The City Reporter. Federal agents seized Pearson’s phone in September 2024. Later that month, the U.S. attorney’s office subpoenaed Molly Schaeffer, the director of the city’s Office of Asylum-Seeker Operations, to testify before a grand jury. Pearson, who is also the target of multiple lawsuits and allegations of sexual misconduct, has not been publicly charged in any bribery schemes.
A former colleague who worked under Pearson also alleged in a 2024 lawsuit that Pearson had been talking about a shelter that was built but never used when he added: “People are doing very well on these contracts. I have to get mine. Where are my crumbs?” The city, which was also named in the suit, denied that allegation in its response.
More recently, the former leaders of shelter provider BHRAGS Home Care became the targets of federal prosecutors. The city has paid the group more than $130 million through emergency contracts since 2022.
In May, prosecutors charged its former executive director, Roberto Samedy, and former board chair, Jean Ronald Tirelus, with embezzling more than $1 million from the organization. Authorities say the men also steered work toward security vendors — including one owned by a retired NYPD sergeant — in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.
The city recently announced it would continue to do business with the provider so long as it consented to being overseen by an independent monitor.
Tagged
Asylum Seekers
corruption
new york city
Ryan Kost
Ryan Kost is a reporter on the day-of news desk, where he covers breaking news and writes enterprise stories about jails, courts, prosecutors and government accountability. His work focuses on the public institutions that shape life in New York. Before joining the newsroom, he lead a multi-part investigation with Columbia Journalism Investigations and New York Focus into how New York prosecutors handle wrongful conviction claims. He's also been a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle, The Associated Press and The Oregonian. Got a tip? Signal: ryankost.20
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