{"id":166160,"date":"2026-02-06T03:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T03:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/166160\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T03:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T03:48:11","slug":"feds-say-san-leandro-councilmember-could-testify-against-former-oakland-mayor-at-trial-east-bay-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/166160\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds say San Leandro councilmember could testify against former Oakland mayor at trial \u2013 East Bay Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 Federal prosecutors have signaled they may\u00a0call a San Leandro city councilman as a witness in the upcoming bribery and fraud trial against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao<\/a> and the men accused of bribing her.<\/p>\n

The revelation by Assistant U.S. Attorney Abraham Fine came as hints emerged during a federal court hearing Thursday\u00a0 of broader corruption across the East Bay, particularly in Oakland.<\/p>\n

San Leandro Councilman Bryan Azevedo is due in court Feb. 11 to appear in his own criminal case<\/a>, during which he is expected to change his plea, court records show. Azevedo was indicted in late 2025 on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and lying to a government agency, amid allegations that he accepted a $2,000 bribe from a fledgling housing company.<\/p>\n

The two-term San Leandro councilman pleaded not guilty in early January, though federal prosecutors have also hinted that a plea deal may be in the works, and that Azevedo is \u201cclose to reaching a resolution of his case.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prospect of Azevedo taking the stand in the Oakland corruption case came as U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers peppered federal prosecutors with questions about what the government might introduce as evidence at trial, so as to ensure that defense attorneys could prepare\u00a0for that testimony.<\/p>\n

Thao\u2019s attorney, Jeffrey Tsai, told Judge Gonzalez Rogers that he recently sought information from federal prosecutors about an ex-Oakland city councilmember accused of engaging in \u201cunlawful activity\u201d with a person referred to in court documents only as Co-Conspirator 1. That unnamed co-conspirator is widely believed to be longtime Oakland political operative Mario Juarez, who twice ran for City Council himself but was never elected.<\/p>\n

The illegal activity involves unlawful contributions by \u201cstraw donors\u201d \u2014 obscure third-party entities often used to evade campaign finance regulations \u2014 Tsai said. He did not name the ex-councilmember in court Thursday and\u00a0could not be reached for further comment after the hearing.<\/p>\n

The claim made in court on Thursday appears to shed more light on a vague and fleeting mention of more widespread corruption across the East Bay which was made in a court filing last month by federal prosecutors. In that filing, prosecutors claimed to have evidence suggesting that Andy Duong and others had \u2014 on multiple occasions \u2014 \u201cattempted to bribe various city of Oakland and Alameda County officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Details of those alleged bribery attempts were included in an affidavit for search warrants obtained by federal prosecutors in early 2024, which have not been made public.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Oakland\u2019s Public Ethics Commission opened an investigation into Andy Duong\u2019s use of straw donors to funnel money to City Council candidates in past elections. The inquiry focused on $51,000 in secret donations to a host of candidates \u2014 including Thao, then a representative of District 4 \u2014 by paying more than a dozen individuals and businesses to make the donations for them.<\/p>\n

Regulators claimed the scheme dated to 2013, around the time California Waste Solutions, which is operated by the Duong family, was negotiating with the city to buy and lease land for recycling facilities.<\/p>\n

A year after that inquiry began, California elections regulators accused Andy Duong of orchestrating another elaborate scheme to improve the standing of his family\u2019s business with local lawmakers and officials by illegally funneling\u00a0thousands of dollars to the campaign chests of 11 political candidates across Alameda and Santa Clara counties, again including Thao. CWS has contracts to pick up curbside recycling in Oakland and San Jose.<\/p>\n

Tsai and his fellow defense attorneys in the case have focused much of their attention so far on hammering at Juarez\u2019s credibility, highlighting a \u201cshockingly long history of criminal charges and civil disputes,\u201d while suggesting that he led federal prosecutors astray with \u201cself-serving spin.\u201d<\/p>\n

For their part, federal prosecutors say they built most of their case against Thao and the others without the help of the unnamed co-conspirator, stressing that they \u201chad been investigating defendants\u2019 bribery scheme for over a year\u201d before speaking to him.<\/p>\n

Thao is accused of accepting bribes from Andy Duong and his father, David, including political favors and a $95,000 no-show job for Thao\u2019s romantic partner, Andre Jones. In return, prosecutors allege, Thao promised to secure lucrative city contracts for a fledgling housing company co-founded by David Duong and Juarez, as well as for the Duongs\u2019 recycling firm, California Waste Solutions.<\/p>\n

Thao, Jones and the Duongs have all pleaded not guilty. Their trial is scheduled to start on Oct. 19.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 Federal prosecutors have signaled they may\u00a0call a San Leandro city councilman as a witness in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,861,7,8,409,1312,723,138,332,1529,1533,181,50323,23,205,100,143,7115,145,144,182,13,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-166160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-alameda-county","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-bay-area-crime","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-city-politics","14":"tag-courts","15":"tag-crime","16":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","17":"tag-east-bay","18":"tag-east-bay-crime","19":"tag-keywee","20":"tag-latest-headlines","21":"tag-legal-affairs","22":"tag-local-news","23":"tag-local-politics","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-oakland","26":"tag-oakland-fbi-raids","27":"tag-oakland-headlines","28":"tag-oakland-news","29":"tag-pm-report","30":"tag-politics","31":"tag-san-leandro"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}