Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao threatened to end her business relationship with David Duong if the East Bay Insiders published a damaging story about then-San Leandro Councilmember Bryan Azevedo, according to a court filing.Vol. VI, No. 1,334
—Federal prosecutors alleged in a motion filed Friday that then-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao made a forceful demand in late 2023 for David Duong to stop a potentially damaging East Bay Insiders story from being published.
“Several months after the Vietnam trip, a reporter began asking questions about the trip, including whether San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo had engaged in sexual conduct with prostitutes during the trip,” prosecutors wrote in the motion.
On June 29, I published a first-person account describing the events that followed a California Public Records Act request I submitted to the City of San Leandro in December 2023.
The Public Records Request That Changed Everything
Ep. 136: The Story They Didn’t Want East Bay Insiders to Write
According to that account, the records request eventually reached Thao, who reportedly became enraged and threatened to walk away from Oakland’s planned purchase of 300 modular homes from Evolutionary Homes, a startup backed by David Duong, Andy Duong and Mario Juarez.
That proposed deal is central to the federal public corruption case that resulted in last year’s indictments of Thao, her partner Andre Jones, and David and Andy Duong on bribery charges.
According to Friday’s motion:
“The government anticipates that several witnesses will testify that when Thao learned that a reporter was inquiring about the trip, she became upset and concerned that a negative story about the trip could reflect poorly on her. The government anticipates that several witnesses will testify that they overheard a call between Thao and D. Duong where she threatened D. Duong that if the news report about the inappropriate conduct on the Vietnam trip came out, she could not ‘work with him anymore.’”
Prosecutors continued:
“Evidence at trial will demonstrate that after that call between D. Duong and Thao, D. Duong, A. Duong, and Juarez met with an associate of the reporter at a restaurant in Livermore in December 2023 and gave him a $10,000 check in an attempt to prevent the story about the Vietnam trip from being published. The $10,000 check provided to the associate of the reporter was drawn from [California Waste Solutions’s] bank account.
“The government seeks to admit, among other evidence, text messages arranging the meeting with the associate of the reporter, as well as a recorded call between A. Duong and Azevedo wherein A. Duong discusses with Azevedo that the article was not going to come out, and that Azevedo should not discuss the arrangement with anyone.”
The “associate of the reporter” identified in the motion is Shawn Wilson, a former co-host of the East Bay Insiders Podcast and the current chief of staff to Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert.
In previous news reports, Wilson acknowledged accepting $10,000 from the Duongs, but said the payment was for public relations work and helping the company pursue future recycling contracts.
Federal prosecutors tell a different story. They allege the payment was directly tied to an effort to prevent the East Bay Insiders article from being published, raising new questions about Wilson’s role in the alleged scheme and whether his previous explanations accurately reflected the purpose of the payment.
In my June 29 account, I described Wilson offering a $2,000-per-month “sponsorship” for the East Bay Insiders newsletter but never explaining what I would be expected to do in return. I never asked. I later told Wilson I did not have enough sourcing or corroboration to publish a story about Azevedo’s alleged conduct in Vietnam.
According to the motion, prosecutors intend to introduce a recorded phone call between Andy Duong and Azevedo in which Duong says the East Bay Insiders story would not be published and instructs Azevedo not to discuss the arrangement with anyone.
Azevedo appears not to have followed that advice.
As I reported on July 1, Azevedo told a San Leandro official sometime in 2024 that he was not concerned about a story regarding the Vietnam trip because “the company was bought.”
That cryptic remark now appears, in light of the federal allegations, to refer to the alleged effort to suppress the story.
No article detailing Azevedo’s alleged conduct in Vietnam was ever published by East Bay Insiders. References to rumors surrounding his conduct first appeared in an April 2025 article, after Azevedo himself raised the issue during an interview with ABC7. Azevedo pleaded guilty to wire fraud and lying to federal investigators in February and immediately resigned from the San Leandro City Council.
Expected to testify for the state
Mario Juarez, Evolutionary Homes founder, co-conspirator #1
Bryan Azevedo, former San Leandro councilmember
Larry Gallegos, former Oakland housing director
Julie Wedge, Evolutionary Homes employee, former Oakland staffer
Cesley Frost, Evolutionary Homes employee, chief of staff, Sup. Tam
*According to the July 24 motion.
—On Oct. 5, 2022—just one month before Oakland’s hotly contested mayoral election—Mario Juarez raised a toast to what he described as the beginning of a potentially lucrative partnership with David Duong to manufacture and sell modular homes, according to a motion filed Friday by federal prosecutors in U.S. District Court.
It was the same day Juarez and Sheng Thao allegedly devised a plan to boost her campaign with a negative mailer targeting opponent Loren Taylor. Prosecutors allege the Duongs financed the mailer, which many believe helped propel Thao to victory by a razor-thin margin of 677 ranked-choice votes.
Federal prosecutors say a video of Juarez’s toast offers broader insight into the Duongs’ influence in Oakland politics. In the recording, Juarez boasts about the Duongs’ conduct after California Waste Solutions unexpectedly secured Oakland’s lucrative recycling contract in 2014.
“The day after you won the City of Oakland contract, you were there, paying everyone. Everyone was like fucking piranhas,” Juarez says in the video. “I was there. I was in your office. $50,000, $100,000, whatever it was, and you said, ‘What do you want?’ And I said, ‘I just want to do business with you.’”
According to the motion, Andy Duong then asked Juarez to record a second take—this time omitting any references to cash payments. Juarez complied. Federal prosecutors describe the speech as a “loyalty oath” to David Duong.
Prosecutors say they expect Juarez to testify that the Duongs provided money to multiple elected officials in order to secure the recycling contract.
The allegation is one of several in the motion suggesting the trial, scheduled to begin Oct. 19, could draw additional public officials into the case and damage their reputations. Rumors that Oakland officials received payments similar to those described by Juarez have circulated for years but have never been publicly substantiated.
—Julie Wedge, a former staff member for Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, and Cesley Frost, who later became Alameda County Supervisor Lena Tam’s chief of staff, were recruited by Juarez to work for Evolutionary Homes without salaries, according to the motion. Both are expected to testify for the government.
Instead of salaries, Wedge and Frost were allegedly promised commissions on each $300,000 modular home sold, including the 300-unit purchase prosecutors say Thao agreed to pursue.
A text message from Juarez to Wedge also references Larry Gallegos, Oakland’s former Housing and Community Development director, who was briefly named in the original indictments against Thao and the Duongs. Gallegos resigned shortly after the indictments became public.
According to prosecutors, Juarez’s text suggested that any obstacles to Oakland’s purchase of the modular homes would be resolved by Gallegos, whom the motion says was “hand-picked” for the housing director position by Juarez and the Duongs.
Gallegos has not been charged with a crime and is expected to testify about Thao’s alleged agreement to purchase the modular homes.
Another text message, this one from Juarez to Frost, describes the proposed purchase of 300 modular housing units as a “done deal,” according to prosecutors.
The motion describes Frost’s role as serving as the “public face of Evolutionary Homes” and participating in meetings with government officials, including Thao and members of the mayor’s office.
—Updated July 27. * 🆕Union City D3; AC Transit Ward 3; Alameda County Water Dist., Ward 3; Newark USD; Dublin D2; Livermore Valley Joint USD Area 3.
🗓️98 days to November General Election
—PULLING PAPERS—The nomination period for candidates seeking office in the Nov. 3 General Election is now underway. Prospective candidates have until Aug. 7 to file nomination papers and qualify for the ballot.
—Here’s a look at the candidates who joined the field on Monday. *-incumbent.
ALAMEDAThushan Amarasiriwardena – Council At-largeMike McMahon – AUSD At-large (Full Term) LIVERMORE*John Marchand – MayorNEWARKNoah Grushkin – Council At-largeJonathan Leder – NUSD At-largeUNION CITYAllan Samson – District 3Kashif Wasim – District 3AC TRANSITAdriana Valencia – Ward 3*Diane Shaw- Ward 7ALAMEDA COUNTY WATER DISTRICTYang Shao – Ward 3