Feds Indict Another Eric Adams Pal, This One for Insurance Fraud

A longtime pal of ex-Mayor Eric Adams who ran one of the nightlife mayor's favorite haunts was indicted Wednesday in an alleged scheme to submit tens of millions of dollars of bogus no-fault car insurance claims.

Zhan "Johnny" Petrosyants, 44, was taken into custody late Tuesday and was set to be presented in court Wednesday. He and his twin brother, Robert, ran Osteria la Baia, a Manhattan hotspot where the former mayor spent many a night.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton alleged Petrosyants was involved in a fraud ring that submitted millions of fraudulent auto insurance claims between 2018 and 2023, creating no-fault medical clinics that were controlled by non-licensed individuals and submitting bills for services that were never rendered or were medically unnecessary.

Clinics that handle no-fault claims often rely on funding companies that provide cash advances based on pending litigation. The companies then pocket the full value of the claims when they eventually settle. Prosecutors say Petrosyants funneled thousands of bogus claims through a funding company with the help of an unnamed co-conspirator.

In a pending civil lawsuit, the insurance giant Geico has alleged a funding company set up by attorney Frank Carone, Adams' former chief of staff and a major city lobbyist, had "knowingly aided and abetted" a longrunning scheme to submit bogus claims that Petrosyants was involved in.

Late Wednesday, Carone — who has not been charged with wrongdoing — declined to comment on Petrosyants' indictment. THE CITY was unable to determine who is representing Petrosyants as of late Wednesday.

This was Petrosyants' second go-round with federal prosecutors. In 2014 he pleaded guilty to participating in a check cashing scheme and was sentenced to five years of probation.

Petrosyants is just the latest of Adams' associates to find himself entangled in the criminal justice system.

Adams' former chief advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, has been indicted twice on corruption charges. One of his longtime associates, Jesse Hamilton, is a co-defendant with Lewis-Martin on one of her cases. And his buildings commissioner, Eric Ulrich, also faces charges of pocketing bribes in exchange for helping out individuals seeking favors from City Hall.

Several top advisors, including his schools chancellor, a deputy mayor and one of his police commissioners, had to resign after their phones were seized by federal investigators in an ongoing corruption probe.

Adams' political fundraising has also attracted the attention of federal prosecutors. In September 2024, the then-mayor was indicted in a wide-ranging campaign finance scheme that involved soliciting and accepting illegal straw donations, including some arranged by associates of the Turkish government.

One of his senior aides, Mohamed Bahi, later pleaded guilty to arranging illegal straw donations for the mayor but Adams managed to escape reckoning weeks before his trial was to begin. The Trump Justice Department intervened and dropped the charges against Adams in exchange for his assistance in the administration's immigration deportation initiative.

Late Wednesday Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for Adams, did not respond to THE CITY's request for the former mayor's comment on the charges filed against his longtime friend.

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