The third day of testimony in ex-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao\u2019s corruption trial saw prosecutors meticulously admitting evidence of what they say was a conspiracy to turn the mayor\u2019s office into a cash grab.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors spent hours admitting thousands of pages documents and surreptitiously-captured pictures Thursday, in testimony that laid a document-heavy foundation for their bribery conspiracy case against Thao, her romantic partner, Andre Jones and the father-son business duo of David and Andy Duong.<\/p>\n
The quartet are accused of agreeing in 2022 to funnel thousands of dollars in the direction of Thao and Jones in exchange for broad influence within City Hall for the Duongs, along with millions of dollars in promised city contracts for two of their companies, California Waste Solutions and Evolutionary Homes.<\/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
Here\u2019s a rundown of testimony on a day when a single witness \u2014 FBI Special Agent Katherine Barclay, a lead investigator on the case \u2014 took the stand:<\/p>\n
\u2018You were there paying everybody\u2019<\/p>\n
Prosecutors kicked off testimony Thursday with a 90-second video taken on Oct. 5, 2022, in which their star witness could be seen holding a bottle of champagne inside a California Waste Solutions conference room and toasting to the Duong family\u2019s exploits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day after you won the city of Oakland contract, you were there paying everybody,\u201d proclaimed Mario Juarez, a longtime political operative and failed two-time City Council candidate. \u201cEveryone was like (expletive) piranhas after you. I remember, because I was there. I was in your office, fifty thousand, one hundred thousand, whatever it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI defended your family, I defend CWS, I defend them physically,\u201d Juarez added.<\/p>\n
Juarez did not specifically name anyone in the video who took payments from the Duongs. At least one other East Bay politician \u2014 Bryan Azevedo, a former two-term San Leandro city councilman \u2014 has taken a plea deal in the alleged scheme, and is expected to testify for prosecutors ahead of a December sentencing date.<\/p>\n
Juarez\u2019s toast came at an Oct. 5, 2022, ceremony marking the beginning of a joint housing venture between him and Duong family. Four champagne bottles and five cigars were laid out on a conference table at the California Waste Solutions\u2019 offices for the occasion, according to pictures taken by Andy Duong and shown to the jury Thursday.<\/p>\n
Moments before popping the cork, Juarez laid out his vision for the new company, called Evolutionary Homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully this is one of many projects we do together and we make a lot of money,\u201d Juarez said. \u201cTo that, I toast you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thao\u2019s alleged role in nascent scheme<\/p>\n
Prosecutors focused heavily on the early days of the alleged conspiracy, highlighting texts and other messages regarding Thao in early October 2022.<\/p>\n
Just two days after giving that toast, Juarez had a meeting scheduled with Thao, according to a calendar entry for the then-mayoral candidate.<\/p>\n
Later that day, Juarez rattled off a string of texts to Andy Duong, during which he said \u201cshe will buy 100 units if mayor,\u201d albeit with \u201cone catch,\u201d newly-admitted evidence showed. Juarez went on to reference a $300,000 contract, as well as a $30 million contract for 100 units.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe will call you heads up,\u201d Juarez then told Andy Duong.<\/p>\n
A day later, on Oct. 8, 2022, Thao provided Jones\u2019 phone number to Juarez, at the longtime political operative\u2019s request.<\/p>\n
The texts and calls continued over the next several days, as Juarez asked Jones for \u201cpolling\u201d and other information that he needed for the creation of controversial campaign mailers that rocked the mayoral race just days ahead of the November 2022 election.<\/p>\n
The mailers formed a key element of the alleged bribery scheme, with prosecutors claiming the Duongs paid for them by funneling $75,000 through an independent expenditure committee established by Juarez. By law, such committees cannot directly collaborate with any candidate for office.<\/p>\n
By Oct. 12, Juarez reached out to Thao, asking \u201cwhere is Andre and my stuff?\u201d Thao later contacted Jones regarding the request, and he subsequently exchanged several phone calls with Juarez that evening. At the time, Jones had been advising Thao on her mayoral campaign.<\/p>\n
Texts and phone records take center stage<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors also spent much of Thursday carefully pairing the defendants\u2019 texts and phone records with each step of the alleged scheme from late 2022 through early 2023. Often, they displayed candid photos pulled from Andy Duong\u2019s phone that appeared to be clandestinely taken during nearly every meeting he attended.<\/p>\n
The testimony included myriad texts about a Dec. 7, 2022, meeting at a fried Korean chicken eatery called Bonchon, which included Thao, Juarez, Andy Duong and Juarez. Later that day, Thao was pictured in an image taken by Andy Duong at a California Waste Solutions conference table.<\/p>\n
A week later, Andy Duong took pictures of multiple handwritten diagrams a white board at the recycling company\u2019s offices, which included the word \u201cmayor\u201d and a flow chart depicting housing development in the city, along with the words \u201c300 units,\u201d according to images shown to the jury. Later that day, Juarez and Jones called each other 11 times, phone records showed.<\/p>\n
The first checks from a company owned by Juarez were deposited into Jones\u2019 bank account beginning the following day, Barclay testified. One $5,000 check was later deposited in early January, the same day that Thao texted Jones to \u201cPls figure out how we pay rent this month asap,\u201d the testimony showed.<\/p>\n
Barclay, the federal agent, is expected to continue her testimony Friday morning.<\/p>\n
This is a developing report. Check back for updates.<\/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 third day of testimony in ex-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao\u2019s corruption trial saw prosecutors meticulously admitting evidence of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,861,7,8,409,1312,723,138,332,1529,181,50323,100,143,7115,145,406,144,13,385,94685],"class_list":["post-505539","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-latest-headlines","tag-legal-affairs","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-fbi-raids","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-mayor","tag-oakland-news","tag-politics","tag-regional","tag-social-alert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505539","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=505539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}