Oakland Ordered to Turn Over Records as Federal Probe Escalates After FBI Raids

Ever since a series of early morning FBI raids last month exposed the existence of a federal criminal investigation involving Oakland elected officials, each week seems to bring a trickle of public updates. The latest: City officials were given until Thursday morning to turn over records in response to a grand jury subpoena.

An assistant U.S. attorney signed the order seeking a far-reaching collection of records a few days after Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home and three properties related to the politically connected Duong family were searched by federal law enforcement. The San Francisco Chronicle first reported the subpoena last week.

Oakland’s city attorney did not respond to a request for comment Thursday on whether the city met the deadline set forth in the subpoena.

So far no indictments related to the federal law enforcement searches have been made public. Thao said in an address that she has not committed any crime, and a spokesperson for California Waste Solutions, a business run by the Duong family, told KQED “we have not engaged in or committed any illegal activities.”

Here’s a breakdown of what the subpoena (PDF) requires and what to expect next from the government investigation.

The order

The subpoena orders Oakland to turn over records from the start of 2022 to the present, including all city communications with two companies related to the Duongs: California Waste Solutions, the city’s curbside recycling contractor, and Evolutionary Homes LLC. According to a 2023 YouTube interview with business co-owner Mario Juarez, the business designs and builds modular homes for people experiencing homelessness.

The subpoena also seeks all records related to the 2022 mayoral election, all records related to development at the former Oakland Army Base, all communications with waste management companies, any plans to declare a local state of emergency related to homelessness, and appointments to official positions within the Oakland government.

Finally, the order targets all communications with Thao’s partner, Andre Jones, as well as any records of meetings involving Jones or Thao.

What we know

Although federal authorities have not disclosed most details about the investigation, local journalism is turning up lots of potential hints.

Court records reviewed by KQED show the assistant U.S. attorney who signed off on the subpoena also requested two search warrants in Alameda County on the day of the searches in Oakland. Those applications say the search warrants are needed to investigate allegations of witness tampering and fraud, among other unspecified charges. It is not confirmed these warrants are the same warrants used to search Thao’s home or the Duongs’ properties.

Members of the Duong family are currently under investigation by state and local elections officials for illegally passing donations through other people to political candidates in Oakland. Oakland elected officials are barred from receiving donations from city contractors, like the Duongs, who run the city’s recycling service.

The business has been planning to build a new facility at the former Oakland Army Base for years — they are currently in the process of getting permits from the city, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Duongs and Juarez, their business partner in Evolutionary Homes LLC, may have had a violent falling out prior to the searches, according to reporting by The Oaklandside. Earlier in June, Juarez was shot outside of his Oakland home. He told police he was being targeted because of his involvement in an “investigation,” according to reporting by The Mercury News. Juarez, who’s been involved in local politics for decades, currently faces felony charges in Alameda County for allegedly passing bad checks while printing political mailers targeting 2022 mayoral candidate Loren Taylor.

And Jones, Thao’s partner who was also named in the subpoena, has been accused by a former Thao staffer of offering political appointments in a pay-to-play scheme, according to reporting by ABC 7. In the interview, the staffer said she had spoken with the FBI.

What’s next?

Federal investigations rarely follow a set playbook, but according to UC Law San Francisco Professor Jonathan Abel, more public moves such as the searches and the subpoena likely mean the initial steps of the FBI’s investigation are done.

“I would guess that at the beginning of the investigation they did as much as they could kind of under the radar,” Abel said. “You wouldn’t want to tip everyone off to what you’re doing because you want to get evidence without it being disturbed.”

If the city turns over all of the records requested, it could still take investigators a while to bring charges, says Stanford Law professor Robert Weisberg.

“Just analyzing the documentation which the subpoena will produce is itself a complicated matter,” Weisberg said. “The prosecutor has to look through it all and see what dots look connectable.”

If the FBI and federal prosecutors end up with what they think is enough proof of a crime, they will present their case to a federal grand jury.

Grand juries are not open to the public. They involve a group of randomly selected citizens who will listen to the prosecutor’s case, often look at physical evidence and hear witness testimony, then decide whether there is probable cause to indict anyone. The people being accused are not present.

It’s a low bar for the government to clear, Abel said.

“Probable cause means a reasonable probability,” he said. “It doesn’t even mean 50% or more [likely]. It’s kind of this free-floating standard where a reasonably prudent person would think that a crime has been committed.”

Grand jury indictments are sometimes kept secret while the investigators work to bring indictments against people connected to the crime being prosecuted.

In total, Weisberg said it could be months before federal authorities publicly share what they’ve been working on.