Eric Adams advisor arrested by the FBI

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Transcript

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Hi, I'm retired NYPD Detective Turned Author Vic Ferrari. And welcome to NYPD through the Looking Glass podcast, where you'll get unique insight into the New York City Police Department. Before we get started, I encourage you to check out my Amazon author page where you'll find my series of behind-the-scenes NYPD books. The $10 paperback or $2.99 ebook download, including my latest and greatest, NYPD behind the Blue Wall of Silence. Today's episode's going to be a quick one. If all goes well, I should be launching another episode tomorrow. The plan is I'm going to interview the author of the book, and it's a good one. Don't talk about Joe Mack. The author's name is Springs Toledo. He's agreed to do an interview with me tomorrow afternoon, so I'll be dropping it if all goes well tomorrow evening. Great book if you have any interest in Whitey Bulger and the Winter Hill Gang. The book is about a guy by the name of Joe McDonald. He's got over 40 hits under his belt. He was Whitey Bulger's arch nemesis to the point where it looks like Whitey Bulger used the FBI to get him arrested a couple of times to pull him off the playing field. Whitey Bulger actually was up at night thinking about this guy. Really good book. It's got a ton of stuff about the Boston underworld and different murders and schemes. And it's a great book. I really, I really enjoyed uh reading it. Another funny thing, which is interesting, I'm a huge NFL fan, and I watch a podcast on YouTube called Pro Football Talk with Mike Florio. And I like Florio. He's an ex-lawyer, or he was a lawyer, and he covers the NFL. You might see him on uh NBC Sunday Night Uh Football with America or whatever they call it. Anyway, I I watch the show loyally. He's on every day. And a couple of times when his screensaver in the background isn't working, I he broadcasts from his basement. So I wrote in the comments section that it looks like live, he's appearing live from the Olive Garden because he's got the upside-down wine glasses, the ground, the granite countertops in the background, the olive pit plates, pit plates, the little um Italian cookie trays, the different level cookie trays. So I wrote on there one time live from the Olive Garden. So actually, today he acknowledged it. I actually thought that was pretty cool. I'll put the link in this week's episode. I've launched a second YouTube channel. Has nothing to do with true crime. It's just my curiosity. I went out and I bought a couple of trail cameras. And you can set these things up. I got one that runs on solar, another one that's battery powered. And I've got some friends that were nice enough to let me put them on their property. And I'm cat, I'm finding all sorts of stuff: coyotes, deer, raccoons, skunks come passing through. So the uh the YouTube channel is called Feral Frames. There's several of them, but I'll also put my YouTube uh the Feral Frames link in the description box. Okay, so let's go get into what's going on with New York City and this corruption scandal. Ex-Mayor Eric Adams, former top advisor, was arrested Wednesday, which was yesterday, and authorities raided the homes of several ex-NYPD officials as part of multiple corruption probes. Frank Corone, 56 years old, had his home searched by the feds in the early morning operation and was arrested in alleged bribery scheme that also involved his brother Anthony Corone, 54 years old. Separately, the FBI sees former chief of department, Jeffrey Madry's phone. And the NYPD and the FBI conducted search warrants to seize additional phones from Assistant Chief James McCarthy and the NYPD's former top spokesperson, Tariq Shepard, in connection to an NYPD internal affairs investigation, though it wasn't immediately clear what the underlying allegations are. McCarthy's been placed on modified duty according to the NYPD. I'm pretty sure Chief McCarthy was one of the bosses who took a knee during the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020. Not 100% sure, but that name sounds familiar, and I've seen a lot of it on YouTube, so I think he was. If he was, I don't feel sorry for him. Corone, this is uh Adams' guy, was hit with a 13-count indictment unsealed Wednesday, alleging that he was serving as Adams' chief of staff in 2022 when he received $120,000 in bribes funnel through his brother-in-law's firm that he used to pay off his credit cards. This is where it gets really weird with this corruption probe. Chinese nationals living in Nassau County had tried and failed to secure a lucrative contract with their micro hotel as a homeless shelter. Each time the Chinese Nationals asked Corone or his brother for help securing a contract, Frank Corone would ask the commissioner of DSS to intervene, and the commissioner did so several times, having underlings go against their prior determinations that it was not a viable location, according to documents. On October 1st, 2022, Zoo, ZHU of Glenhead, New York, and Chen of East Williston, New York began making a series of monthly payments to Frank Coron by sending money to a firm where Anthony Coron was a partner. Both Corones were in federal court Wednesday and were all freed on costly bonds. The arrests of the current and former members of the NYPD stemmed from a probe of former Chief of Department Madrid's alleged misappropriation of funds, with the FBI called in to assist in the investigation. Sources said cops are looking into a potential bribery and other official misconduct by former high-ranking police officials, including potential wrongdoing in how promotions and assignments were doled out. No arrests were expected to be made Wednesday in connection with the NYPD raids. The FBI conducted a raid on Madri's home while the NYPD conducted the searches on the other department officials targeted in the investigation. Madri's lawyer told the Post his client is fully cooperating. Former Chief Madrid was forced to resign from the department in 2024 amid a sexual scandal in which he was accused of forcing an underling to perform intimate favors in exchange for overtime. Chief McCarthy also previously had his phone seized by the feds along with a number of other top NYPD officials. Adams spokesman Todd Shapiro Shapiro lauded Corone's career in a statement Wednesday, noting that we are praying for him. Yeah, I'm sure he is. This is a mess. And then all of a sudden he started having all these legal problems. And then the Trump administration came in and it looked like they were gonna kind of wash a lot of this under the bridge. But now it seems to be popping up. There's one thing I know about the feds, they're slow and steady, and they're gonna make you sweat. So they've got these phones, they've done these search warrants, and then they just wait. And they wait, and they might still have wiretaps up on his phones. It's called tickling the wire, where you do something to try to get somebody to talk even more on an additional phone. They might know that these guys got burner phones, took one set of phones, hoping they're gonna talk on the other phones, or maybe they got informants in there, people that have already flipped, that these guys are gonna go to and go, you know, what the fuck? You know, they came and took my phone, but you know, it it could be nothing, but I think it's something. I think these guys got a problem. This thing, this this story really pisses me off. The Bonehead Knicks fan who went viral for stealing a team themed city garbage can has returned the stolen goods and was slapped with $175 in fines for the dirty deed. The orange and blue receptacle was pilfered after an incredibly stupid fan, identified by sources as recently act's JP Morgan Chase executive Angie Baez dumped trash onto Broadway and walked off with the city-owned receptacle. JP Morgan Chase, where Baez worked as a director of community and industry engagement, sounds like DEI, but I'm not 100% sure, confirmed this week that the employee is no longer with the company. So chances are this woman worked in the city. What is she gonna do with a w an orange and blue wire basket garbage can? That's something you do when you're 12 years old and you steal something and you bring it home and your parents find it in the garage or in the backyard and beat your ass because you don't really have an explanation of where it came from. And you got to see what this woman looks like. I mean, she's huge. I don't get it. She was part of those morons that are basically tearing up the city after the Knicks win. You know, we've all done stupid shit like this. I'll tell a story. Around the block from where I grew up, there was a uh it was a lot of things. It was a safeway, it was a clothing store, and the commercial garbage trucks would come, and sometimes when they were backing up, they would knock over parking meters. So I was, I think I was a freshman in high school, and my brother and I saw the parking meter laying on the ground. So we waited till it got dark, and my brother and I picked up the parking meter, which weighed 100 pounds. So picture of a 14 and a 12-year-old. Somehow we got it into the house, and somehow we got it into the basement. Well, this is great. We can use it as a bank. What are we gonna do with this? We come up with the bright idea. We're gonna crack this thing open and get this kid. We thought there was a shitload of money in this thing, right? Now, I don't know how the world works. I don't know what kind of hack wood blade you need. Now, obviously, to cut metal, I know now you need a hacksaw blade. So one afternoon, my father had a skill saw, which is used to cut wood, and I figured, oh, this will open it up. And my father heard us down there screwing around, and thank God, my father came down the stairs and he sees me with the skill saw in my hand, and we've got the parking meter with the pole on his workbench, and he goes, What the fuck are you two doing? And we're like, Well, we found this parking meter, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. My father goes, Do you realize if you would have, you know, turned on that saw and touched that metal with with the with with a wood saw, it would have jumped and you could have lost your leg? I was like, Really? He goes, Yeah. So we got punished and he says, I want this thing out of here. So we said, All right. But I still wanted to see what was in it. So there was this hardware store in my neighborhood. My brother and I went in there and we got a hacksaw blade, and I'll never forget this. I spent four dollars in hacksaw blades. It took us a week to soar into the um the metal, the lot of the the safe part of it, and I got three dollars and ninety cents in dimes. So crime doesn't pay, especially, you know, when you're an idiot trying to steal something that doesn't belong to you. And my cousin did the same thing. My cousin and his friend, they were drunk one time and they were on Tremont Avenue in Throgsneck and they saw a car double parked, and it had the Domino's pizza sign, you know, the illuminated sign that the drivers have. Domino's or one of those, you know, whatever, or Papa John's or whatever. And my cousin and his friend pulled up to it. My cousin hung out the window. He said, Go. His friend hit the gas and they yanked the thing off. I think they might have even broken the um the cord. So anyway, they got this thing in the house. I see it at my aunt's. I ask him what it's doing there, and he tells me this. First, he gave me a bullshit story and I got it out of him. I said, You should really get this out of the house. So he gives it back to his friend, and his friend had a salesman's job, and he puts this Domino's pizza sign in the trunk of his car, and one day his boss wants to give him materials or samples or whatever. They pop the trunk and they find the Domino's pizza lit up sign in the thing. The boss thinks that this moron is delivering pizza in his spare time, which this kid was like my cousin. He didn't have the oomph. He fired him on the spot because he thought he was using the car to you to deliver pizza. Again, crime doesn't pay. All right, another story. Rockland County Correction A Rockland County Correction Officer pled guilty Tuesday to charges connected to an incident that allegedly occurred when he was on duty earlier this year. Russell Thorne, a 63-year-old correction officer from Greenwood Lake, appeared in Rockland County court as a defendant. Prosecutors say the incident happened on February 17th when he was working at the Rockland County jail. According to the Rockland County DA's office, a woman who worked with Thorne at the time left a cup of coffee unattended. Thorne is accused of placing something in a drink. When she returned, she took a sip and spit out a pill, which was later identified as a laxative. Mr. Thorne is facing charges including second and third degree attempted assault, official misconduct, prison contraband, yada yada yada. He pled not guilty in court to Judge Asher during an arraignment Tuesday morning. The judge issued an order of protection for the alleged victim. After the arraignment, Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Walsh said, We believe it was a horrendous act of workplace violence. People in their employment should feel safe and secure. That's true. Thorne has been a correction officer for 15 years, public data shows, and he earned a salary of almost $130,000. How stupid can you be? I mean, here's a guy 63 years old. He could be collecting Social Security. I'm sure he was going to get a pension with that job. And you're going to put a laxative in someone's drink. I don't get it. And he he started that job later in life, right? So he was like in his 40s, late 30s, and he just threw it away. They're going to fire him. There's no way he's going to beat it. There's a witness. Just kind of threw his his his life away. And I've seen, you know, I was never big with messing with I would I was usually practical jokes in my office. And when I was a cop in the locker room, loved practical jokes. But I never screwed around with someone's food or something or a drink or something that someone was going to ingest. And I but I've seen it and I've seen fights over it, and I've seen people that have lost their minds over it. There was one guy we were I worked with who was not well liked, let's just say, and uh he had his personal coffee cup that he always kept on his desk, and he's very proud of that coffee cup. Can't really go into why, because then I'd be kind of pointing him out. But guys in the office didn't like him. And one day after working overtime, one of the guys in my office saw the cup. The guy must have rubbed him the wrong way for the 18th time, like he did everybody else in the office. The guy dropped his pants, put his junk in the cup, got a Polaroid camera, took a photo of it, and then what he did was in the NYPD, like detectives, we used to fill out things called daily activity reports. Cops carry a memo book, so you're write in a book with that can be inspected. Detectives back then filled out these uh things called DARS, daily activity reports. And he took the photo of his junk in the guy's coffee cup and he stuck it under a stack of DARs. So the guy basically was drinking out of that cup for weeks or even a month, and one day he came across it, and the guy lost his mind. He wanted to fight everybody in the office, and no one was talking. The cup disappeared for a while, and then he put the cup back. Same guy saw the cup one day, and again he rubbed them the wrong way. This time he went downstairs and he found a crackhead in the cells. He goes, You want a Pepsi? And the guy goes, Sure. He bought the guy a Pepsi, poured the soda in the cup in the mug, gave it to the homeless guy who had like three teeth. Like he really found like a guy that was fucked up looking. And as the guy was drinking out of the mug, took another Polaroid photo, stuck it in the bottom set of jars. This time the guy didn't say anything about it. He pretended like it didn't bother him, but the cup mysteriously just disappeared, and that was the end of it. So I don't agree with that. I don't agree with fucking with someone's food or drink. I just don't. Or personal property if it's something that's got sentimental value. Thomas, Tommy Dono, a little known one-armed Gambino soldier who cut his teeth as a bank burglar and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 90s, still has the mightest touch. The gangster's been credited with pulling off a spectacular $1.7 million burglary of the Chanel Boutique in Manhattan, the company's largest and most significant in the country, according to the Manhattan DA's office. The blockbuster ripoff took place nearly two years ago. That's when Dono and a crew of 10 stole hundreds of items worth of $1.7 million from Chanel's flagship store on East 57th Street. Dono, 52 years old, is to have supervised the scheme from a white minivan parked at the store until 1.25 a.m. Sunday, July 14th. That's when he drove away from the scene of the crime, followed by a white splinter van filled with 10 laundry and trash bags containing 300 Chanel items lifted out of a stock room to a ceiling hatch. According surveillance footage obtained by the NYPD, the bags of loot were carried down a rear fire escape by five crew members into an alleyway behind the store. Several of the burglars were dressed as construction workers, and they gained access to the store through breaking through a storeroom hatch. None of the merchandise has been recovered. Only Dono, who pleaded not guilty to grand lawsuit on May 19th, has been arrested in the case. So that means they don't know what anybody looks like. He was released on a $300,000 bond by Judge Felicia Menon. Half of what the DA sought. The investigation is continuing. More arrests are expected. Based on information in the court records and sources, uh, Dono was quickly named as a key player because his left arm was amputated at the shoulder shoulder several years ago. Sources say the limb was injured in a car accident. Giving his unique physical characteristics record state, he was identified relatively early. And the way they caught this guy was they did um surveillance, they had surveillance footage around his house, and they saw the white van that he used and other the other vehicles parked around his house. I don't know why the FBI isn't involved in this. Probably it's a pissing match between the Manhattan DA's office and the FBI, and the FBI definitely has more tools. They could get him in a RICO thing, but they didn't. Uh Dono is currently a mobster in good standing under Capo, under the Capo who took over Sammy the Bull, Gravano's crew when he flipped Lewis, Big Lou, Valerio. So that's that. Anyway, I hope you guys tune in tomorrow for my interview with Springs Toledo, who's author of the book Don't Talk About Joe Mack. You should look into that book. It's really good if you like true crime. As always, I'd like to thank everyone for tuning in, especially my listeners Hong Kong, Orlando, Florida, Bidford, Maine, Schomburg, Illinois, Auburn, Massachusetts, Montreal, Quebec, and Border, Morgan. If you work in law enforcement or had an interesting criminal background, please drop me a note on Twitter or Instagram at VicFerrari50. If you're watching on YouTube, please hit the like and subscribe button. And if you enjoy the content, please check out my Amazon author page where you'll find my series of behind the scenes NYPD books. Type in my name, Vic Ferrari Like the Car, where you can preview all my NYPD books for free. Thanks again, everyone, and I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully.