The alleged pay-to-play bribery scheme between former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao and the city’s recycling contractor nearly unraveled in 2023, when word began to leak of “suspected drug use and activity involving prostitutes” by another East Bay politician during their high-profile shared delegation trip to Vietnam, federal prosecutors claim in new court filings.
The tiff between Thao and the Duong family — which runs the city’s recycling contractor, California Waste Solutions — is among several major revelations included in recent court filings by federal prosecutors in their sprawling East Bay corruption case.
Thao, her romantic partner, Andre Jones, and the father-son business duo of David and Andy Duong were all indicted in January 2025 on a host of bribery and conspiracy charges. All have pleaded not guilty ahead of their Oct. 19 trial.
Among the new allegations made public by federal prosecutors:
• In 2019, Thao fed “sensitive” information on internal Oakland City Council deliberations to Andy Duong, amid a contentious lawsuit between the city and the Duongs’ recycling company claiming customers had been overcharged;
• In 2021, Thao created a fake $150,000 job for her romantic partner, Andre Jones, through a relative’s cannabis consulting company in order to secure a loan for their Oakland home;
• Andy Duong “regularly took surreptitious photos and videos of politicians in compromising positions for potential use against them,” dozens of which were found by federal prosecutors on his phone.
The revelations come as federal prosecutors fight attempts by Thao, Jones and the Duongs to toss a mountain of evidence ahead of their October trial. Prosecutors say all of the details are important to their case, because they help paint a detailed picture of their relationship and the way they operated during the scheme.
Federal prosecutors have long claimed that Thao accepted bribes from Andy Duong and his father, David, including political favors and $95,000 toward a $300,000 no-show job for Jones. In return, Thao promised to secure lucrative city contracts for a fledgling housing company co-founded by David Duong and Mario Juarez, a two-time City Council candidate and longtime East Bay political operative.
The agreement, prosecutors allege, also included the promise of a renewed contract with the Duongs’ recycling firm, California Waste Solutions. And the agreement called for Thao to appoint people favored by the Duongs to important positions in the city.
The creation of that housing company, Evolutionary Homes, proved to be a time for celebration for some of the defendants, the newly-public court filings show. On Oct. 5, 2022, during one celebratory toast to the family that was captured on video, Juarez noted that he had pursued a business relationship with the family for some time.
“The day after you won the City of Oakland contract, you were there, paying everyone,” Juarez apparently stated in the video, adding, “everyone was like f—ing piranhas.”
“I was there,” Juarez continued. “I was in your office, $50,000, $100,000, whatever it was.”
Juarez, prosecutors note, is expected to testify that he was referencing bribery payments made by the Duongs to public officials back in 2014, when California Waste Solutions secured a new recycling contract with the city. Prosecutors did not name anyone else who received bribes in their most recent filings.
Inside information
The newly released documents shed new light on how closely the group all worked together, while hinting at broader corruption throughout the East Bay.
As early as 2019, then-councilmember Thao provided information on internal City Council deliberations and strategy on the city’s ongoing litigation against California Waste Solutions, including where individual councilmembers stood on the dispute, federal prosecutors said.
Oakland had sued CWS two years earlier claiming millions of dollars in overcharges by the company for “backyard service,” which involves recycling carts at multi-family buildings being brought out to the curb. The company later agreed to pay about $6 million in refunds for 2,000 multi-family building owners to settle the case, while also agreeing to lower their rates for that service in the future.
While feeding Andy Duong the information, Thao expressed concern about being seen with him in public. The two had plans to meet at a restaurant the next day, but Thao asked to shift those plans, telling him that “I prefer a private room because we don’t really want to be seen with you guys.”
Another fake job
Federal prosecutors also say Thao had a habit of securing fake jobs for Jones, her partner of more than a decade. In 2021, Thao asked her sister to write a letter in support of a loan application for the couple’s Oakland home, because Jones needed to have an income-paying job to secure it.
The letter falsely claimed Jones earned a $150,000 salary with the cannabis consulting company owned by Thao’s sister, the court filing says. Jones previously worked for the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control from 2017 through 2021.
A new alleged payoff
The alleged scheme between Thao and the Duongs was advanced in March 2023 during a meeting at an unnamed restaurant.
At that dinner, Thao and Jones asked the Duongs to purchase a $5,000 table at an upcoming fundraiser for the Niagara Movement Democratic Club, which planned to celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary. Bank records obtained by prosecutors show CWS later wrote a check to the Niagara Movement Foundation for that amount, and phone records detailed conversations between Jones and the Duongs about the payment.
Attorneys for Andre Jones have asked the judge to keep that alleged payment from being aired in court. Federal prosecutors, however, say it helps paint an important picture of the couple “frequently” requesting perks from the Duongs, and that this event in particular aimed to “benefit her politically,” the filings said.
A problematic trip and a buried story
The first hint of tension between the defendants came in October 2023, the new court filings claim.
It began when an unnamed reporter began inquiring about San Leandro City Councilman Bryan Azevedo and his alleged use of drugs and “activity with prostitutes” during a delegation trip to Vietnam two months earlier.
In a call with David Duong, Thao became irate and said something along the lines of “if this stuff happens, I can’t work with you anymore,” or “I can’t f— with you anymore,” according to the court filings, which quoted Thao’s staffers who overheard the conversation.
Video found by authorities on Andy Duong’s phone depicted him, Azevedo and others in a car during the Vietnam trip “discussing sexual interactions from the previous evening,” prosecutors claimed. Their court filing does not include details of what those interactions may have entailed, or who else was in the car at the time.
Federal prosecutors say a news story about the alleged behavior was buried with a $10,000 bribe.
David and Andy Duong, along with Juarez, met “an associate of the reporter” at a Livermore restaurant and handed him a $10,000 check tied to a CWS’ bank account, the filing claims. Azevedo was in the car at the restaurant when the bribe was paid, prosecutors claim, and he was later told by Andy Duong that the article wouldn’t be published as a result of the bribe.
Prosecutors did not name the reporter or their publication.
Details of the alleged incident were recently reported by Steve Tavares, an independent journalist who writes the newsletter East Bay Insiders. He published an online post in June describing how Shawn Wilson — a political consultant who co-hosted a news podcast with Tavares — admitted to accepting $10,000 from the Duong family for public relations work after rumors about the Vietnam trip first surfaced.
Wilson, the chief of staff to Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert, told this news organization in January 2025 that the Duongs paid him to help rehabilitate their reputation, but denied that he had helped bury a damaging story about Azevedo.
Azevedo pleaded guilty earlier this year to accepting a $2,000 bribe and then lying about it to federal agents in what prosecutors say was a similar scheme in San Leandro. He is expected to testify for prosecutors at Thao’s trial, and his sentencing has been delayed until after that case concludes.
More videos and a political appointment
Federal prosecutors suspect Andy Duong often took videos of others in compromising positions, and they repeatedly cite phone calls that he surreptitiously recorded.
In one instance, Andy Duong recorded and took pictures of a man they wanted appointed as deputy director of the city’s Housing and Community Development Department, as he was alongside “scantily-clad women” at a karaoke bar.
That man, Larry Gallegos, was soon named to the post shortly afterward. He is expected to testify about that evening at the karaoke bar and how Andy Duong’s picture-taking made him “uncomfortable,” the court files show.
Juarez, who has since cooperated with authorities, told investigators that Andy Duong “regularly” took secret videos and pictures of politicians, all “for political use against them.” Prosecutors said Juarez’s claims are corroborated by “dozens of such videos, photos and recordings” found on his phone, though prosecutors did not say who else had been captured on tape.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.