When FBI agents barged into Andy Duong’s Oakland hills home in June 2024, The Oaklandside watched as agents exited his house with seized materials.
But exactly what they found has remained a mystery for close to two years. A court filing describing the raid was redacted — until now.
The federal judge overseeing the bribery case that ensnared Andy, his father David, and former Mayor Sheng Thao and her romantic partner Andre Jones, recently unsealed some sensitive portions of the case.
According to a court briefing prosecutors originally filed in January, which was unredacted yesterday, the 2024 search of Andy Duong’s home turned up “a significant amount of cash, a cash counter, and a significant number of firearms as well as ammunition.”
Agents also recovered “multiple gallon sized bags of marijuana,” prosecutors wrote. That same day, agents also obtained a warrant to seize “tens of thousands of dollars in cash and ammunition” at David Duong’s house.
At Andy’s home, agents also found a Rolex watch and necklace “matching the description of the watch and necklace Co-Conspirator 1 alleged was stolen from him on May 3, 2024.”
The government recently confirmed “Co-Conspirator 1” is Mario Juarez, a Fruitvale businessman and political operative who previously partnered with the Duongs to sell shipping container homes to Bay Area cities. This news organization reported on Juarez’s connection to the Duongs shortly after the FBI raids in 2024.
David and Andy run California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s curbside recycling contractor. Federal prosecutors have accused the Duongs of scheming with Thao, Jones, and Juarez to get Thao into the mayor’s office in exchange for lucrative contracts, land deals, and influence over political appointments.
The documents released this week give the public a glimpse into the life of one of the main defendants.
An attorney for Andy Duong declined an interview request but said that his client’s firearms were all licensed and said the “supposed marijuana” was not seized from the house. The attorney also noted that no charges have been filed for these items.
Juarez did not respond to interview requests.
Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office also declined to comment on the unsealed information.
Jewelry seized in raid may bolster informant’s claims
FBI agents leaving Andy Duong’s home on June 20, 2024. Credit: Darwin BondGraham/The Oaklandside
The recovery of allegedly stolen items lends some credence to Juarez’s allegation that he was beaten outside of the Duongs’ Oakland office building in May 2024.
In a letter sent to officials at the Port of Oakland in May 2024, Juarez described himself as a business partner of the Duongs in a company called Evolutionary Homes, which was headquartered in the Duongs’ California Waste Solutions building on Embarcadero in Oakland, which is leased by the Duongs from the Port of Oakland.
According to various public records and the federal indictment, the Duongs and Juarez planned to build modular shipping container homes and sell them to cities, including Oakland, for use as homeless housing. These plans never came to fruition.
In his letter, Juarez claimed that he attempted to enter the company building on May 3 of that year but discovered that the Duongs had changed the locks. Juarez wrote that he confronted David Duong and two of his relatives, including Andy, on the first floor of the building.
In the ensuing argument, Juarez alleged that David Duong instructed Andy to contact the police. According to Juarez, several individuals showed up and “orchestrated a physical assault and robbery” against him.
“I was brutally attacked and had valuable items stolen, including a high-value watch, heirloom jewelry, cash, documents, and phones,” Juarez alleged. He filed a report with the Oakland police, making the same allegations, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Juarez claimed that he was also forced to make a video apology to David Duong.
David Duong called Juarez’s allegations “bizarre and disturbing” in a letter he sent the port after Juarez had contacted their landlord. Duong wrote that Juarez’s claims were “outrageous and fictitious,” and that neither Juarez nor Evolutionary Homes had ever been tenants in the building.
FBI agents say they found a Rolex watch and necklace matching the description of Juarez’s property inside Andy Duong’s home, according to the new unredacted court records.
Some of the items found in Andy Duong’s house, including the large amounts of cash, a cash counting machine, firearms, ammunition, and large quantities of cannabis, raise questions about his business outside of California Waste Solutions.
Duong was allegedly connected to a Chinatown karaoke bar that was shut down by state agents with the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control in 2018 for sex trafficking and narcotics. The owner and manager of the bar were also accused by city and state political regulators of participating in a political money laundering operation with Duong.
According to an investigation by the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, Andy Duong allegedly engaged in a years-long scheme to illegally funnel money to the political campaigns of local politicians. As a city contractor, CWS is barred from making donations to candidates and politicians in Oakland.
The PEC alleged that Andy Duong skirted this rule with straw donors — friends and acquaintances whom he reimbursed for making contributions to favored politicians. Investigators with the state Fair Political Practices Commission investigation alleged in an investigative document from 2021 — part of a related probe of political money laundering — that Andy Duong handed out cash to intermediaries who recruited straw donors.
On social media, Andy Duong shows off a lavish lifestyle, including trips to Las Vegas and night clubs. In many posts, Duong promotes an entertainment company he’s a founder of called Lieu Bros LLC.
Judge denies Duongs’, Thao’s attempt to throw out evidence
Mario Juarez, shown here in a video posted by the Vietnamese American Business Association, accused the Duongs of assaulting and robbing him in 2024. Credit: VABA
The prosecution’s newly unredacted filings about the FBI’s June 2024 raids were drafted in response to an attempt by the Duongs, Thao, and Jones to get the evidence collected during those raids tossed out.
Earlier this year, the defendants filed motions claiming the government’s case was built on the word of an informant known for engaging in dishonesty and fraud. They accused the FBI of knowingly seeking and obtaining search warrants based on Juarez’s untrustworthy testimony. Their court motions asked for a chance to question the FBI agent that sought the search warrants.
The government opposed their motion, but until now, some of the key information provided by prosecutors was hidden behind black redaction boxes.
During a hearing last month, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said there was no good reason to keep certain information — including Juarez’s identity, which has been widely assumed by the press and public — under wraps. She told lawyers on both sides to get together and figure out which filings to unseal.
And earlier this week, Rogers issued a ruling denying the Duongs’ and Thao’s attempt to suppress the evidence collected during the raids.
More records are likely to be unredacted in the near future, per an agreement between the defendants and the prosecutors.
A trial is set for Oct. 19.
“*” indicates required fields