{"id":501721,"date":"2026-10-20T02:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501721\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T02:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T02:58:09","slug":"mystery-no-more-origin-of-fbi-investigation-into-former-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-revealed-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/501721\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery no more: Origin of FBI investigation into former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FBI\u2019s sweeping corruption investigation into former-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao<\/a> began less than two months into her recall-shortened term, with a February 2023 tip from the Oakland Public Ethics Commission about controversial mailers that targeted her political opponents, a federal agent revealed in court testimony Monday.<\/p>\n

The revelation highlighted the second day of testimony in the trial of Thao, her decade-long romantic partner, Andre Jones, and the father-son business duo of David and Andy Duong. The disclosure came amid hours of testimony on the campaign mailers that, prosecutors say, formed a key component of the alleged bribery pact<\/a> and were meant to help lift Thao into the mayor\u2019s office in the November 2022 election.<\/p>\n

Special Agent Katherine Barclay said the city\u2019s ethics commission approached the FBI in February 2023 about a businessowner who had been hired to help produce the mailers by a longtime political operative, Mario Juarez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That businessowner, Samari Johnson, then told FBI agents that he had been stiffed by Juarez<\/a>, and that the lack of payments for those mailers had been impacting his printing business, Butterfly Direct Marketing, according to court testimony. Johnson also told federal agents that Juarez made statements about the mayoral candidate he had supported, Barclay added.<\/p>\n

FBI agents subsequently secured search warrants for Juarez\u2019s iCloud account, during which investigators found evidence of \u201ca potential larger bribery scheme<\/a>,\u201d Barclay testified.<\/p>\n

Among the items discovered on that account: An electronic note that was shared in a WhatsApp message with Andy Duong titled \u201cDeal Points for Sheng Thao :: Election :: Post Election::.\u201d It outlined a laundry list of favors promised between Thao, Jones and the Duongs \u2014 among them $75,000 for the mailers from the for Duongs\u2019 recycling business, California Waste Solutions.<\/p>\n

The Apple note called for the mailers \u2014 three varieties of which were produced \u2014 to reach 68,000 households each.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say the bribery scheme also called for Jones to receive a no-show job through a company co-founded by David Duong and Mario Juarez, called Evolutionary Homes<\/a>. In return, Thao allegedly promised that the city would purchase 300 housing units from the business, and agreed to see through a decade-long extension for California Waste Solutions\u2019 city recycling contract, according to her indictment.<\/p>\n

All four defendants have pleaded not guilty to a slew of charges, including conspiracy to commit bribery and wire and mail fraud. The most serious offenses carry a potential 20-year prison term.<\/p>\n

Juarez previously pleaded guilty to engaging in a conspiracy to commit bribery and is expected to be called by prosecutors to testify as their star witness in the case. Further details \u2014 including when Juarez entered his plea \u2014 have not yet been made public, however, and his case does not appear in a publicly searchable federal database, suggesting it may have been sealed.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys have repeatedly hammered Juarez, a former two-time City Council candidate, and his credibility before and during trial, suggesting he lied to prosecutors in order to secure a more lenient sentence. In opening statements, they lampooned him as \u201cthe master of half-truths,\u201d also calling him \u201ca sophisticated political operator\u201d and \u201ca consummate hustler.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, prosecutors have stressed that they began their investigation long before ever speaking with Juarez. In filings ahead of trial, prosecutors claimed to have built their case on reams of texts, videos and other documents found on the defendants\u2019 phones.<\/p>\n

For a time, Juarez also faced state charges for the bounced checks he allegedly wrote to Johnson for the 2022 mailers. Alameda County prosecutors filed a felony check fraud case against him in January 2024, though prosecutors moved to dismiss it the following year<\/a>, citing a lack of evidence and concerns it could not be proven at trial.<\/p>\n

Part of prosecutors\u2019 concerns stemmed from allegations by Juarez of a shakedown attempt by then-District Attorney Pamela Price<\/a>, who strongly denied that she had filed the case in retaliation for Juarez\u2019s reluctance to donate $25,000 to her political campaign. The alleged ultimatum happened during a visit by Price to Evolutionary Homes\u2019 showroom in January 2023, roughly two weeks before the charges were filed.<\/p>\n

In court filings, federal prosecutors listed Johnson as a potential witness ahead of Thao\u2019s corruption trial. It remains unclear if, or when, he may take the stand.<\/p>\n

The mailers dominated testimony Monday \u2014 particularly during questioning of a former campaign consultant for Thao\u2019s 2022 mayoral campaign.<\/p>\n

That consultant, Noah Finneburgh, recalled the reaction inside Thao\u2019s campaign as early excitement about the mailers gave way to concern about their \u201cracist\u201d undertones.<\/p>\n

The mailers targeted Thao\u2019s main political rivals in that election \u2014 among them Loren Taylor, who is Black and whose face appeared to be digitally altered. His picture, which appeared to be to be cribbed from a newspaper portrait of Taylor standing in a partial shadow, depicted him with reddened eyes, a digitally-altered frown and a newly-arched eyebrow, Finneburgh testified.<\/p>\n

Finneburgh said he personally found the mailers to be \u201coffensive,\u201d and worked with Jones \u2014 who often doubled as a close \u201cadvisor\u2019 to Thao throughout her campaign \u2014 to draft a response to the ads. In a subsequent social media post, Thao\u2019s campaign condemned the mailers and stressed they were sent by an independent expenditure committee that was outside of Thao\u2019s control.<\/p>\n

Neither Thao nor Jones mentioned knowing anything about the mailers ahead of time, Finneburgh testified. Nor did the couple mention having spoken to Mario Juarez \u2014 who led the independent expenditure committee \u2014 before they were sent, he said.<\/p>\n

On cross-examination, Thao\u2019s attorney focused on Juarez\u2019s alleged role in the mailers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d agree with me that the person or persons responsible for putting out such a mailer is a pretty sick mind, no?\u201d asked the attorney, Jeff Tsai.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say, yeah, they misunderstood the electorate. I would not agree with their approach,\u201d Finneburgh testified, adding \u201cthe person who did it has problems.\u201d<\/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":"The FBI\u2019s sweeping corruption investigation into former-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao began less than two months into her recall-shortened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,861,7,8,409,1312,723,138,332,1529,1533,181,50323,23,205,100,143,7115,145,406,144,182,13,385,94685],"class_list":["post-501721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-bay-area-crime","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-city-politics","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-east-bay","tag-east-bay-crime","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-legal-affairs","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-fbi-raids","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-mayor","tag-oakland-news","tag-pm-report","tag-politics","tag-regional","tag-social-alert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501721","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=501721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}