Former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao, her romantic partner and a pair of influential Oakland business owners are facing federal corruption and bribery charges, federal authorities announced Friday.
If convicted of all charges in the eight-count indictment, Thao, Andre Jones and David and Andy Duong could spend decades in prison.
“The indictment returned by the grand jury describes a corrupt scheme in which the defendant used bribes, mail fraud, wire fraud and other illegal practices to manipulate and corruptly influence the levers of local government,” said Patrick Robbins, first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California.
The defendants were scheduled to appear before a U.S. Magistrate in the federal courthouse in Oakland at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
The indictment comes about six months after a well-publicized FBI raid of the home Thao and Jones share in the Oakland hills and about two months after Oakland voters removed her from office in a recall election.
The alleged scheme started around October 2022, prior to the November election Thao narrowly won that year, and involved a $95,000 payment from the Duongs to Thao and Jones.
In exchange, Thao allegedly agreed to buy “housing units” from a Duong-owned company, extend a city recycling contract for their company and appoint a high-level city official to benefit the Duongs’ business interests.
In addition to the $95,000, the Duongs also allegedly bribed Thao with the financing of a negative campaign mailer targeting her political foes in the lead up to the 2022 election.
Attorneys for Thao and Jones didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did a spokesperson for Cal Waste Solutions, the Duongs’ recycling company.
