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Queens hotel owner indicted in Adams-era corruption case can go to World Cup, judge says
By
Samantha Max
Published Jul 1, 2026
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Samantha Max / Gothamist
By
Samantha Max
Published Jul 1, 2026
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The owner of a Long Island City hotel accused of bribing a high-ranking member of previous Mayor Eric Adams’ administration in exchange for a city contract can go to the World Cup finals in New Jersey later this month, a federal judge in Brooklyn said Wednesday.
Yan Po "Andy" Zhu appeared in court along with co-defendants Frank Carone, Anthony Carone and Crystal Chen a week after they pleaded not guilty to bribery, money laundering and other federal crimes. Prosecutors say Zhu and his business manager, Chen, gave Frank Carone $120,000 and that the Adams aide, in turn, directed a city official to give him a multimillion-dollar contract for a migrant shelter.
Here’s a brief rundown of what happened in court:
Judge grants Zhu permission to go to the Meadowlands
Zhu is under the most restrictive pretrial conditions of all the defendants, with an $8 million bond and electronic monitoring. His defense attorney told Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in court Wednesday he already had tickets to the World Cup on July 19 and asked if he could go to New Jersey for the occasion.
Matsumoto allowed Zhu to attend the match, which will be the highly anticipated final. Tickets are currently selling for thousands — and in some cases even tens of thousands — of dollars on websites like StubHub and SeatGeek.
Tentative trial date set
The federal trial could start as early as Aug. 24, if Matsumoto sticks to the tentative trial date she set Wednesday. But the judge acknowledged in court that date was not necessarily realistic, given the complexity of the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Winik said prosecutors plan to share a “voluminous” amount of discovery, including 4 terabytes’ worth of data. The defendants will have millions of pages to review, she said. Some materials still have yet to be extracted from devices that investigators seized more recently, she added.
So much information could delay the trial. Zhu’s defense attorney also said he plans to ask for his client to be tried separately than the others so he has more time to review the evidence — a request that Matsumoto said could also slow down the case.
Andrew Goldstein, one of Frank Carone’s defense attorneys, said outside of court that he wants the case to go to trial “as soon as humanly possible.” He said the government spent two-and-a-half years “digging into every aspect of our client’s life” and came up short on evidence of a crime.
“We are confident that when we do have our day in court, that the evidence at trial is going to show there was no corrupt agreement, there was no official action that Frank Carone took on behalf of Mr. Andy Zhu, and that, in fact, Mr. Carone did not in any way betray his office,” Goldstein said.
In court, the defense attorney said he thinks prosecutors have exculpatory evidence from witnesses who said Carone never directed a city official to give Zhu a contract.
Prosecutors chide defense attorney for comments outside of court
Winik asked the judge to remind defense attorneys not to violate court rules about the types of public statements they can make ahead of trial, citing a comment Frank Carone’s defense attorney made last week about the prosecution potentially being politically motivated.
“This is a perfect example of the government deciding on a target,” attorney Arthur Aidala said outside of court last week.
“Why is Frank Carone the target? I don’t know. They’re not going to tell us that,” he added. “Is it because he and the mayor of the city of New York at the time, when the migrant crisis was out of control, stood tall and fought for New Yorkers to the White House?”
Aidala noted that the investigation started under a different presidential administration but has continued under the same prosecutors. He questioned whether they were “upset” about President Donald Trump’s intervention in Adams’ corruption case, which resulted in his charges being dismissed.
“So now they’re doing the next best thing and taking Frank Carone,” he said.
The judge said attorneys are entitled to their opinions but must follow court rules.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Tagged
Politics
new york city
public safety
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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