{"id":174053,"date":"2026-02-11T22:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/174053\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T22:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:10:07","slug":"ex-san-leandro-city-councilman-bryan-azevedo-pleads-guilty-in-federal-corruption-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/174053\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-San Leandro City Councilman Bryan Azevedo pleads guilty in federal corruption probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 Former San Leandro City Councilman Bryan Azevedo<\/a> pleaded guilty Wednesday to accepting a $2,000 bribe and then lying about it to federal agents, signaling the first conviction in a sprawling East Bay political corruption scandal that has also ensnared Oakland\u2019s former mayor.<\/p>\n

Azevedo \u2014 who resigned<\/a> from San Leandro\u2019s City Council effective Tuesday, about a year into his second term \u2014 said little during Wednesday\u2019s court hearing, except to acknowledge U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers and seal the deal.<\/p>\n

Wearing a dark blue suit with no tie and an American flag pin on his lapel, Azevedo pleaded guilty to the exact same charges for which he was indicted last year:<\/a> Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and lying to a government agency. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and five years in prison for the other count \u2014 though it\u2019s unlikely that he serves that much time, given his lack of prior criminal history and his expected cooperation with federal prosecutors in another case.<\/p>\n

Azevedo said only \u201cno comment\u201d when approached by reporters after the hearing.<\/p>\n

His plea completes a steady fall from grace<\/a> for the two-term councilman, a sheet metal foreman who handily won election to the City Council in 2020 before watching his political fortunes slowly fade in recent years. He barely won re-election in November 2024 \u2014 capturing the contest by fewer than 500 votes \u2014 before becoming entangled in the largest political corruption scandal to hit the East Bay in decades.<\/p>\n

He now becomes a potential witness for federal prosecutors<\/a> as they continue to build their case against ex-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.<\/p>\n

The former mayor is accused of accepting bribes from Andy Duong and his father, David<\/a>, in the form of help paying for controversial election mailers ahead of the November 2022 election, as well as a lucrative no-show job for Thao\u2019s romantic partner, Andre Jones. In return, prosecutors say, Thao promised myriad political favors for the Duong family, including new city contracts for a fledgling housing company co-founded by David Duong, as well as for the Duongs\u2019 recycling firm, California Waste Solutions.<\/p>\n

Thao, Jones and the Duongs have all pleaded not guilty to a slew of conspiracy, bribery and fraud charges. They each face decades of prison time when their trial opens on Oct. 19.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors said Azevedo was at the center of a similar scheme<\/a> in San Leandro.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors claimed Azevedo received a $2,000 cash bribe in November 2023 from another co-owner of the housing company, Evolutionary Homes. In exchange, Azevedo agreed to use his influence on the City Council to help the company secure city contracts to build housing units, according to federal charging documents.<\/p>\n

Ahead of allegedly receiving the bribe, Azevedo created a limited liability company in his wife\u2019s name, federal court records show. The councilman then opened a bank account at the behest of Evolutionary Homes\u2019 leaders, all to potentially receive more kickbacks once the housing contracts were signed, federal prosecutors alleged.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Azevedo pushed other councilmembers to pass an emergency shelter ordinance that would have made striking a deal for the housing units easier to accomplish, prosecutors claimed. At one point, federal authorities suggested Azevedo went so far as to coordinate a tour of the housing company\u2019s model units at its Oakland waterfront showroom, the records show.<\/p>\n

Until Wednesday, Azevedo had steadfastly maintained his innocence<\/a> in increasingly bizarre media interviews.<\/p>\n

In one interview, he denied ever being with prostitutes or using drugs while on a summer 2023 trip to Vietnam with a large delegation of East Bay elected officials, despite not being directly asked about anything like that. He said he only got massages while in Southeast Asia as part of the delegation, which included the Duongs, Thao and other East Bay officials.<\/p>\n

He also called Andy Duong a \u201cgreat guy\u201d and longtime friend while speaking with ABC7 news. When pressed specifically about any potential\u00a0arrangement between him and Evolutionary Homes, Azevedo said, \u201cI don\u2019t remember nothing, there was no arrangement on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check back for updates to this developing story.<\/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 Former San Leandro City Councilman Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty Wednesday to accepting a $2,000 bribe and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,861,7,8,1312,723,138,332,1529,181,50323,23,100,143,7115,145,144,385,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-174053","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-courts","14":"tag-crime","15":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","16":"tag-east-bay","17":"tag-east-bay-crime","18":"tag-latest-headlines","19":"tag-legal-affairs","20":"tag-local-news","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-oakland","23":"tag-oakland-fbi-raids","24":"tag-oakland-headlines","25":"tag-oakland-news","26":"tag-regional","27":"tag-san-leandro"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174053","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=174053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}