The federal corruption trial against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao kicked off this month. Thao and her three codefendants — Andre Jones, David Doung, and Andy Doung — are facing conspiracy and bribery charges. Prosecutors allege that the group engaged in a quid pro quo to advance the Doungs’ companies in exchange for money and support for Thao’s 2022 mayoral campaign. KQED’s Alex Hall joins us to break it all down.
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Episode Transcript
This transcript is computer-generated. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:00:00] I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara and welcome to The Bay, local news to keep you rooted. Former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao is on trial this month, nearly two years after she was indicted on federal corruption charges. Thao and three other defendants, including the head of Oakland’s recycling contractor, could go to prison if they’re found guilty of bribery and corruption charges, prosecutors alleged they engaged in a pay-to-play scheme when Thao ran for mayor in 2022.
Alex Hall: [00:00:42] You’ve got people who could testify in this trial who are either currently in Oakland City government or were in Oakland city government very recently. And I think it will just be interesting to see the kinds of things that they reveal when they’re on the stand.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:00:59] Today, Enterprise and Accountability reporter Alex Hall breaks down the federal corruption trial of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:01:20] So before we dive into this trial in Oakland, I want to start actually a little further back with before Sheng Thao became this embattled former mayor at the center of this federal trial, she has this really compelling story of just how she sort of became this mayor of many firsts. Can you actually just remind us of that version of Shang Tao and why it was such a big deal when she was first elected.
Alex Hall: [00:01:50] Yeah, so Tao was elected 2022 as mayor, and she was relatively young, 37 years old. She was the first Hmong American woman to be elected mayor of a major US city, so pretty big accomplishment. And she, like you said, had a pretty compelling story.
News Reel: [00:02:10] Through music and dance, Mayor Shang Tao was inaugurated as Oakland’s 51st mayor. The historic nature of Thao taking the oath of office has become a point of pride for many.
Alex Hall: [00:02:21] She talked about experiencing domestic violence, about how she had lived in her car with her infant son. She had gone to community college and transferred to UC Berkeley and started working as an intern in Oakland council member, Rebecca Kaplan’s office and eventually became her chief of staff. She ran for city council herself and won in 2018. And so, you know, she had this really interesting backstory and I think that the hope was that that experience would inform her policy priorities as mayor.
Sheng Thao: [00:02:57] We believe our city deserves a government that serves all its people, not just a few, not just the wealthy, and not just well connected.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:03:12] I remember when she was elected, it was sort of like an example of just like this amazing, like really very Oakland story. But when did things start to really fall apart for Shang Tao after she was elected in 2022? And how did that all sort of lead us to where we are now with this trial?
Alex Hall: [00:03:34] Yeah, I mean, I think Thao definitely faced challenges from the get-go. There was this ransomware attack that the city had to deal with almost right away. City was dealing with public safety issues, issues with the city’s budget. So there were some problems that her administration inherited, but some of her decisions also were unpopular. Pretty soon after coming into office, Tao placed the city’s police chief at the time, LeRonne Armstrong, on administrative leave, and there was significant backlash in response to that. And in January 2024, her critics launched a recall campaign against her. And it wasn’t long after that, roughly six months, that the FBI executed search warrants at the home she shared with her longtime partner, Andre Jones.
News Reel: [00:04:34] Some breaking news coming into us tonight from the Bay Area with the FBI and other federal agencies raiding the Oakland Mayor’s home.
Alex Hall: [00:04:42] So the FBI conducts these very public raids. Obviously, Thao is facing a ton of questions about what’s going on with this, and she’s also fighting a recall. So she’s holding events where she’s really fighting the recall, but also saying really publicly, I’m innocent, and I want to be crystal clear.
Sheng Thao: [00:05:04] I have done nothing wrong. I can tell you with confidence that this investigation is not about me.
Alex Hall: [00:05:13] And at this point, she hadn’t been charged with a crime, and it wasn’t really publicly known what the federal government was even interested in when it conducted those raids.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:05:22] Yeah, but it was so shocking.
Alex Hall: [00:05:24] Yeah, yeah, there were a lot of questions, you know, even though obviously the FBI is not going to say publicly what they’re looking for. There were little hints here and there based on, you, know, the subpoenas to different entities, including the city of Oakland. We found out later that witnesses were being called to testify before a grand jury. And then in November, Tau did end up losing the recall. And she was indicted roughly two months later in January 2025. You know, it’s been almost two years since Tau was indicted, so we’ve been covering this case for quite some time, but only really through the court records. And the stakes are definitely high.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:06:06] Let’s get into the basics of this trial, Alex. Who exactly is on trial aside from Sheng Thao and what exactly are they being accused of?
Alex Hall: [00:06:16] There are four defendants, including Thao. Andre Jones, Thao’s long-term partner. David Duong is the CEO of California Waste Solutions, which is Oakland’s curbside recycling provider. And Andy Duong previously worked for California Wastest Solutions and is his son. They’re essentially alleging a pay-to-play scheme. If you read the indictment, you see that the story that the prosecution is telling about what happened in this alleged scheme is that in the lead up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election when Thao was ultimately elected, the four agreed to a bribery scheme. You know, Tao was facing a pretty tight race, and the government says that she promised to, if she won, take steps that would benefit the Duong’s companies in exchange for money and negative campaign mailers targeting her opponents in that mayoral race. Actually, they specifically alleged that she promised to extend a California Waste Solutions contract and to commit the city of Oakland to purchasing housing units from Evolutionary Homes, which was this housing company that aimed to convert shipping containers into housing for the homeless that’s also really at the heart of this case. They also say that she agreed to appoint individuals to pretty high-level positions in Oakland City government who were either preferred by the Duongs or hand-picked by them. So, Thao, Jones, David, and Andy Duong are all facing conspiracy, bribery, honest services mail fraud, and honest services wire fraud charges. Andy Duong is additionally charged with making false statements to a government agency, essentially lying to the FBI.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:08:31] So we’re talking about what sound like pretty serious allegations about corruption within the city of Oakland, dating back to before Sheng Thao was even elected. What kind of evidence has come out so far?
Alex Hall: [00:08:45] Yeah, so prosecutors have described all types of evidence. Text messages, signal messages, financial records, toll records, audio and video recordings. There’s also a fifth person involved in this alleged scheme who isn’t actually charged in the indictment, but he’s a pretty big presence in the case, and that’s Mario Juarez. Juarez is an Oakland businessman, and he’s been described as a political operative, really active in Oakland city politics. So Juarez actually went into business with the Duangs on this business venture, Evolutionary Homes, around that time that the prosecutors say this alleged scheme started coming together. He has now pleaded guilty to participating in the alleged scheme, and he is now a key cooperating witness for the government. Juarez is expected to testify that Andy Duong told him that he recorded elected officials without their knowledge for use as potential leverage or potential blackmail later on. And we saw some of this supposed secret photos that were taken, including in opening statements.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:10:19] We’re going to pause for a second, but to summarize, prosecutors allege Thao and the co-defendants agreed to a quid pro quo. They claim the CEO of Oakland’s waste management company, along with Mario Juarez, agreed to pay for campaign mailers to help Thao get elected mayor, and that the Duongs promised to pay TOW’s partner, Andre Jones. $300,000 for a no-show job. In exchange, according to the allegations, Thao promised to use her political power to advance the Duong’s business interests, to extend a contract for their waste management company, and buy container homes from another business venture. When we come back, how the defendants respond to the allegation and what to expect from the trial moving forward. We’ll be right back.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:11:31] Okay, Alex, so prosecutors are building this corruption case against Shane Tau and these co-defendants and they plan to present all this evidence, including pictures and videos. What do we know about how the defendants, including former Mayor Shane Taut, plan to fight this in court? Like, what have they said in response to these allegations?
Alex Hall: [00:11:57] Yeah, I mean, even before the defendants were indicted, Thao was saying publicly that she was innocent. Attorneys for both Thao and David Duong, when they were giving their opening statements, told the jury that basically their clients didn’t even know about the alleged scheme. Andy Duong’s attorney had this whole analogy about stars in the sky kind of being like facts and how the government might be trying to connect those stars as part of a constellation, But the story the government is telling isn’t true, that the dots don’t actually connect the way that they’re saying they do. So it’s like each individual team is kind of taking its own different approach. And defense attorneys have been really raising a lot of questions about Mario Juarez. What they’ve described as this decades-long history of fraud, I think it will be really interesting to see what they ask him about and how he responds.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:12:59] I mean, I want to talk about the potential outcomes of this trial, Alex. I mean are the people on trial here, including former Mayor Shang Tao, facing prison time? Or what could happen to them at the end of this trail?
Alex Hall: [00:13:15] If they are convicted, the defendants could face possible prison time.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:13:21] That alone is, I mean, really shocking that a former mayor of Oakland could go to prison. How long could this trial last, Alex?
Alex Hall: [00:13:30] The trial is expected to go until just before Thanksgiving. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has been really trying to move things along quickly, but it could go longer than expected.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:13:45] There are obviously very specific people at the center of this trial, but what implications could this trial you think have for Oakland beyond Sheng Thao?
Alex Hall: [00:13:55] You know, we don’t know what the outcome of this case is gonna be, but it will be really interesting to see how exactly it comes up during the trial, if at all, other allegations that Juarez has made about broader corruption in the city of Oakland that allegedly goes beyond this specific alleged scheme. You know, we don’t know how much of that is gonna come up during the trial, but the prosecution’s witness list includes multiple current and former elected officials and city staffers. It’s interesting that so many people who, you know, are intimately involved in the inner workings of Oakland government are either, you now, expected to be part of this trial or could otherwise be discussed. As part of the testimony in the trial, and I think that’s what makes it really interesting.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:14:54] Well, Alex Hall, thank you so much for breaking this down. I appreciate it.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: [00:14:57] Yeah, thanks for having me.
Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco-Northern California Local.