Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:01:57] Alex Hall is a reporter for KQED.
Alex Hall [00:02:00] Roughly the same time, we received notification from the U.S. Attorney’s office that they were planning to make an announcement about a significant law enforcement action.
Patrick Robbins [00:02:11] Good morning. My name is Patrick Robbins. I’m the first assistant U.S. attorney here in the northern district of California.
Alex Hall [00:02:18] So last Friday, we went to the press conference, which took place at the federal building in San Francisco.
Patrick Robbins [00:02:26] Before I describe the details of the indictment, I want to emphasize one thing. What I’m about to describe are just allegations.
Alex Hall [00:02:34] And the announcement that they made was that they were unsealing an eight count indictment charging former Mayor Thao, her longtime boyfriend, Andre Jones, and two businessman, father and son, David and Andy Duong.
Patrick Robbins [00:02:47] The indictment returned by the grand jury, describes a corrupt scheme in which the defendants used bribes, mail fraud, wire fraud and other illegal practices to manipulate and corruptly influence the levers of local government.
Alex Hall [00:03:02] They said that the investigation had been going on for years and that it started with a tip from the Oakland Ethics Commission.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:14] So let’s talk about the indictment itself, Alex. What does it accuse former Mayor Sheng Thao of? Specifically.
Alex Hall [00:03:21] The indictment describes an alleged corruption scheme in which the feds say that Thao agreed to take certain actions as mayor that would benefit the Huang’s if she were elected, and in exchange that Duong allegedly funded negative campaign mailers targeting her opponents. And Jones was allegedly paid tens of thousands of dollars for a no show job with the promise of even more money that prosecutors say would benefit Jones And how? The feds allege that this so-called pay to play scheme started in the lead up to the 2022 mayoral election, and that Towle promised to do a number of things once she was in office. One was committing the city of Oakland to use public money to purchase housing units from the Duongs housing Company. Another was extending the city of Oakland’s contract with the Duong recycling company, California Waste Solutions. She also allegedly agreed to appoint city officials selected by the drawings and an unnamed coconspirator in the indictment.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:34] There are several people who are being charged here. Let’s start with Andre Jones, her longtime partner. What exactly is he being accused of?
Alex Hall [00:04:45] Jones alleged involvement in this so called pay to play scheme was receiving money from the Duongs and an unnamed coconspirator in the indictment for a no show job. Basically, it’s a paid position that requires an individual to perform duties for which no work or attendance is actually expected.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:05:09] And who exactly are the Duongs? Alex Because we’ve been talking about them a lot here. Tell us a little bit more about them.
Alex Hall [00:05:19] Yeah. So the Duong family owns California Waste Solutions, which is Oakland’s curbside recycling provider. The company’s CEO is David Duong and he runs the company with other members of his family. The Duongs are major political donors. They regularly donate to candidates at the local, state and federal level. David Duong son Andy Duong is kind of a flashy guy. If you look at his Instagram account, he has a lot of photos of himself posing with big name politicians and living this kind of lavish lifestyle. There’s a photo of him on a yacht with the caption, Another day, another yacht, him posing in a limo with the Bontas, photos with Gavin Newsom. Xavier Becerra, Barbara Lee, the Duongs, David and Andy Duong in this indictment are accused of bribery and many of the same charges that Thao and Jones are accused of. With the exception that Andy Duong is also accused of making false statements.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:30] I mean, Alex, you. You’ve just painted. I feel like a mean a very shocking picture of a mayor who it sounds like is being accused of essentially abusing her political power. What has Thao said so far in response to what is in the indictment?
Alex Hall [00:06:51] I mean, I think it is important to point out these are just allegations. She herself hasn’t said anything publicly, but her attorney did address the media following her arraignment in Oakland on Friday.
Jeff Tsai [00:07:02] Name is Jeff Tsai. I am counsel on behalf of Mayor Thao. We just have a short statement. Today’s indictment and the press conference that was held by the government earlier this morning was successful in grabbing headlines. But what it did not do was serve the ends of justice.
Alex Hall [00:07:18] Tsai also questioned the timing of the indictment, but it has amplified how politicized this case may be being perceived.
Jeff Tsai [00:07:26] In this case. The case is built on allegations from an unknown coconspirator that we believe, when the evidence is revealed, will show that my client has committed no crimes.
Alex Hall [00:07:39] He also mentioned the Justice manual and how the government is obligated to be careful in how they when they’re prosecuting a case so as not to influence the outcome of an election. And that’s something that we heard quite a bit from Thao herself last year as she was on the campaign trail fighting the recall effort.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:08:05] Of course, this is just the beginning. And as you mentioned, there’s a whole process that needs to unfold. All these folks who will have their day in court. But what would the consequences be if Thao and Jones and the Duongs are, in fact, found guilty here? Like what could prison time look like for these these folks?
Alex Hall [00:08:25] I mean, it depends. Any one of the defendants could decide to work out a plea deal and admit to some or all of the charges in order to avoid going to trial. Each of the six counts that Thao is charged with carries a maximum possible sentence of five, 10 or 20 years. So technically, if she were convicted on all counts, she could face a sentence of decades in prison. But, you know, it’s hard to say how realistic that is or whether it would actually happen. You know, maybe she could pay a fine or face a different type of penalty. At this point, it’s really early in the process to predict what’s at the end of that road.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:09:16] I mean, what’s the reaction been so far?
Alex Hall [00:09:30] Well, this city has been pretty quiet. I reached out to a couple of people in the mayor’s office who declined to comment. I reached out to all members of the city council. Didn’t hear back from really anyone except for council member Janani Ramachandran, who said that, you know, this is a blow to public trust at a time when trust is already low. Oakland is getting ready to choose a new mayor in a few months in an April special election. And candidates who are running for mayor to fill those shoes were pretty vocal following this announcement on Friday. You know, and in the indictment, it talks about how the Duongs and Thao allegedly conspired to print these mailers to target Thao’s opponents. One of those individuals was Loren Taylor, former city council member, who, if you remember, very narrowly lost to Thao in the 2022 mayoral election. When I talked to him, he said that, you know, this really reinforces the distrust that a lot of people in Oakland already have about local government. And he said that it’s going to take a lot to restore that trust. Recently retired East Bay Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who recently announced she’s entering the race, sent out an emailed statement in which she called the allegations devastating. She said there should be no tolerance whatsoever for secret pay to play schemes that local government and our political system must be beyond reproach.
Renia Webb [00:11:01] I was subpoenaed to testify in front of the grand jury last month, and so that’s why I had an idea that the charges would be forthcoming.
Alex Hall [00:11:09] I also talked to Renia Webb, who was Thao’s chief of staff when she was on the city council, and who continued to work for Thao after she won in 2022 and was kind of transitioning into the mayor’s office. And she when she heard the announcement about the charges, she was really quite emotional.
Renia Webb [00:11:28] I’m just extremely proud of Oakland. You know, we as a city stood up and said enough is enough.
Alex Hall [00:11:36] She said that, you know, there’s this light at the end of the tunnel and, you know, it’s time to move forward.
Renia Webb [00:11:42] We voted for the recall and today is confirmation that we did the right thing.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:11:54] Do you think we can expect a lot more to come out from here? Like maybe more shoes to drop even beyond Sheng Thao?
Alex Hall [00:12:03] Personally, I think that the city of Oakland and potentially other parts of the East Bay are going to be feeling the impact of this for some time. And that’s for a number of reasons. One is that federal officials said that the investigation is ongoing. There could be more indictments. Just last week, the FBI raided San Leandro City council members home. So this could be one of several indictments that come out. We really don’t know. Another reason is that the allegations that are described in the indictment, the time period that that they’re talking about, was really recent, as recent as early last year. So some of the employees and topics that are described are still active in city government today. California Waste Solutions still has a contract with the city of Oakland through 2035. And then another reason that I think that this is going to continue to reverberate is that looking at the subpoenas, there were a lot of topics and people that the feds appeared to be interested in that were not mentioned in this indictment. So that tells me either in their digging into these topics, they didn’t find evidence of a crime or it could mean that they’re still looking into those people.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:13:26] It seems like the indictment is already affecting this special election coming in a few months. I mean, how do you think this news is going to affect, I guess, the conversation about Oakland’s future in the coming months? Because, I mean, there’s already been so much cynicism and I feel like exhaustion in the city around corruption. And I feel like people are tired.