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Mayoral spox: Carone & Petrosyants bros are friends, "haven't been in business together." But Carone repped nightclub that twins managed (and, evidence suggests, had owned).

Drip, drip. drip.

The evidence mounts regarding unseemly, if not unsavory, professional connections between Mayor Eric Adams' Chief of Staff, Frank Carone, and the felonious Petrosyants brothers, one of whom (Zhan, or Johnny), is close friends with Adams.

Adams' spokesman said on Twitter, in response to the New York Daily News, "Carone and the Petrosyants are not in business and haven't been in business together. They are friends." That's a reference to referrals to a health care business that the newspaper unearthed.
From Prime Six lawsuit

But they have been in business together, a fact that's gotten far too little attention--as has Adams's connection to that previous business.

The Woodland case

As I reported in 2019, Carone and his law firm Abrams Fensterman represented the scofflaw Park Slope bar/nightclub Woodland, eventually stripped of its liquor license by the State Liquor Authority (SLA),

As stated in a lawsuit authored by Carone on behalf of Prime Six (dba Woodland), "Prime Six is solely owned by Akiva Ofshtein and managed by American Standard Hospitality Group." (An excerpt is above.)

A footnote added, "The SLA was provided a copy of the management agreement in approximately April/May of 2018 to demonstrate that Robert and Zhan Petrosyants have no ownership interest in Prime Six." That indicated a $10,000/month fee, an administrative law judge later stated.

Other evidence, as I reported, suggests they were previously owners. (The SLA had alleged that the twins had control of the license, though they weren't eligible, given their record, and later sustained that allegation.)

For example, a now-deleted page on the website of the American Standard Hospitality Group, which I downloaded 4/30/18 and is excerpted at right, describes the ASHG as their enterprise and Woodland as their first venture, among restaurants "owned" by the group.

At the time of the lawsuit, at the least, the brothers were managers, paid by Prime Six, controlled by Akiva Ofshtein, to ensure Woodland's success.

So Carone, if not hired directly by the twins, was certainly working on behalf of their interests. And that--other than from the most myopic perspective--suggests they were "in business" together. 

Note the ties between the parties: Ofshtein has recently served as Johnny Petrosyants' spokesman, to Politico, which described him, insufficiently, as owning "multiple restaurants that the twins have either managed or promoted."

The news cycle

Top NYC Mayor Adams adviser Frank Carone linked to felons in records related to health care business reported Michael Gartland and Chris Sommerfeldt of the Daily News on 2/23/22:
A log of emails submitted as part of a federal lawsuit in Brooklyn shows more than a dozen communications about the business between Carone, the Petrosyants twins and others — all of which were exchanged years after the brothers’ guilty pleas.

In an eyebrow-raising twist, Carone’s venture, which allegedly advanced money to doctors who had filed no-fault medical insurance claims, was in the same general arena of business in which federal authorities said the Petrosyants brothers were involved.
Carone hasn't been accused of wrongoing, but the Daily News found some smoke:
But a health care vendor who said he’s had dealings with one of the brothers told The News that he was approached about a no-fault insurance business opportunity in 2019 by Carone, Johnny Petrosyants, Jordan Fensterman and Daniel Kandhorov, a businessman listed in corporate records as a co-owner of the funding companies identified by Geico.
Adams spokesman Fabien Levy then conceded that the brothers "recommended several clients to Carone."

Missing link

The Daily News wrote:
While there’s no indication he knows about Johnny Petrosyants’ possible connection to Carone, Adams has been tight with both men for years.
Wait a sec. Adams was very familiar with the Woodland case, as described below, and therefore surely knew of Carone's connection to the case, and to the brothers.

An update

Mayor Adams distances himself from top adviser Frank Carone’s ties to felons, the Daily News's Chris Sommerfeldt reported 2/25/22:
“What happened to his business agreements prior to being my chief of staff is really something that I am not accountable for,” Adams said at an unrelated press conference on Staten Island after being asked about Carone’s connections to the felon brothers, Zhan and Robert Petrosyants.

“What he does as my chief of staff, he will live up to the highest standard that I expect from all of my staff and employees.”
Adams's knowledge, and Carone's (alleged) conduct 

Surely Carone's business agreements were, at least indirectly, shared with Adams, who showed an uncanny familiarity with the Woodland case, saying the State Liquor Authority was “taking it personally, the lawyer," who'd clashed with Carone. 

According to an affidavit from that lawyer,  Margarita Marsico, Carone cursed her multiple times, twice calling her "a fucking liar" and twice saying "fuck you." She added that she "felt threatened."

In a response affidavit, Carone stated that, "after Ms. Marsico slandered my client not as a licensee, but in his capacity as an attorney, and outrageously questioned his ethics and morals to the Court, I called her “a liar”... [the] insulting and false comments to the Court specifically about my client’s status as an attorney were potentially damaging to his career." 

He didn't address the alleged cursing and intimidation.

Does anyone care?

The Daily News article noted a criticism from a supporter:
“Awful appearance of impropriety at the very least! I don’t get it,” ex-Brooklyn Councilman Sal Albanese, a moderate Democrat, tweeted at Adams. “(The mayor) needs to avoid this, but he’s ignoring it and it can be deadly.”
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