Vol. VI, No. 1,416
—The growing evidence that Andy Duong, the aspiring filmmaker turned alleged political insider, essentially documented an entire Oakland City Hall bribery conspiracy on his iPhone should come as no surprise.
Andy Duong wanted to be a movie producer. Years ago, he even tried his hand at producing a film named Codename: The Dragon. But on Thursday, his apparent directorial debut took center stage in U.S. District Court in Oakland.
And what a production it was.
Think Goodfellas meets The Blair Witch Project, with a little The Godfather thrown in for good measure. Except instead of grainy handheld footage from a dark forest, the setting was Oakland City Hall, the offices of California Waste Solutions and a succession of East Bay restaurants.
Federal prosecutors spent much of Thursday meticulously reconstructing the alleged conspiracy through an extraordinary collection of text messages, emails, phone records and photographs involving former Mayor Sheng Thao, her longtime partner Andre Jones, Andy and his father, David Duong, political operative Mario Juarez, and others.
Nearly every sequence had something resembling a cinematic payoff. A series of messages established that a meeting had been arranged. Phone records confirmed the participants had communicated. And then, almost inevitably, came the money shot: another photograph from Andy Duong’s iPhone.
The photographs placed the participants together at approximately the same times and locations described in their electronic communications.
Sometimes Duong posed proudly with Thao, flashing the familiar smile of a man apparently delighted to be rubbing elbows with Oakland’s political establishment.
Other times, the photography was considerably more unsettling.
Several photographs suggested Duong was surreptitiously documenting meetings without the subjects realizing they were being photographed.
His signature cinematographic technique apparently involved positioning his iPhone near his lap, producing compositions in which his white pants and shoes occupied a substantial portion of the frame.
One photograph captured Thao and David Duong seated in a conference room at California Waste Solutions’ Oakland headquarters. Another showed Thao and Jones at Skates on the Bay in Berkeley during a pivotal March 2023 dinner that prosecutors contend furthered the alleged conspiracy.
Naturally, the Skates photographs also featured Duong’s lap and the dinner table.
The framing suggested he may have been pretending to look at his phone while actually snapping photographs of the people across from him.
It’s the kind of composition that would get you thrown out of introductory cinematography class. But for federal prosecutors, the awkward compositions were Oscar-worthy.
In classic film noir, the protagonist’s greatest weakness frequently becomes the instrument of his destruction. In Goodfellas, the criminals’ seemingly irresistible urge to boast about their exploits eventually helps unravel their world.
The same question hangs over Duong’s photographic obsession. Why document so much?
At 37, Duong belongs to a generation for whom documenting virtually every meal, gathering and personal encounter can seem second nature. Perhaps his endless selfies were simply an extension of that habit.
But there’s something distinctly peculiar about the apparent compulsion to photograph meetings that federal prosecutors now characterize as components of an elaborate criminal conspiracy.
Did Duong view himself as the central character in a grand political production? Was he collecting trophies of his proximity to power? Or did he simply fail to realize that the camera roll on his iPhone could someday become an FBI exhibit?
There is, of course, a more ominous literary interpretation: the character who unconsciously leaves behind the clues that will bring about his downfall.
But suggesting that Duong secretly wanted to get caught, much less bring down his father and the family business, would require a leap beyond anything established in the courtroom.
The simpler explanation may be the most devastating. He apparently liked taking pictures. Lots of pictures.
And prosecutors now have the benefit of that extensive personal archive.
But the prosecution’s strategy became unmistakable Thursday. In movie parlance, prosecutors were assembling a montage. And each new photograph supplied another piece of the story.
His filmmaking career may never have taken off, but his camerawork has finally found an audience: 12 jurors, six alternates and a courtroom full of lawyers and spectators.
Of course, the defense has yet to offer its full interpretation of the footage. Its own version of the story could look considerably different.
That’s the peculiar thing about movies. The same footage can tell entirely different stories depending on how it’s edited.
For now, federal prosecutors have the director’s chair. Andy Duong supplied the footage.
And the jury will ultimately decide whether this production is a crime drama, dark comedy or, as the defense insists, a work of fiction.
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🎙️EAST BAY INSIDERS PODCAST
—EPISODE 142—Former Oakland mayoral candidate Loren Taylor joins East Bay Insiders for an inside look at the federal corruption trial of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and the Duong family.
—Listen on Substack or download episodes at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
