Former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty to corruption charges Wednesday and has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in a related case.
Azevedo initially pleaded not guilty in November to one count each of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and making false statements to a government agency.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers scheduled his sentencing for December with the understanding that Azevedo will be helping the government with another case, presumably involving his two unnamed “co-conspirators” who are accused of bribing him to help sell their housing company’s units to the city.
The maximum sentence Azevedo could receive is 25 years in prison and a fine of $500,000, although he could see a much less severe penalty given that he’s now helping federal prosecutors.
As part of his plea, Azevedo admitted that in the summer of 2023, he took an all-expenses-paid, 10-day trip to Vietnam that was sponsored by a business association run by the family of the co-conspirators.
After the trip, Azevedo agreed to advocate on behalf of their modular housing company with other members of the San Leandro city government to vote on items that would benefit the company and to ensure that the city bought housing units from the company.
In exchange for his votes and advocacy, Azevedo was to receive a percentage of the sales from the modular homes the city would buy, according to prosecutors.
He was instructed to set up a limited liability company and bank account under his wife’s name to avoid detection and given $2,000 in cash to open the account.
The bribery scheme had been used previously by the co-conspirators with other, unnamed elected officials, according to prosecutors.
In June 2024, prosecutors say Azevedo was instructed to vote in favor of an emergency shelter ordinance that would have benefitted the company, which was building and selling prefabricated modular homes made from shipping containers.
As part of his plea, Azevedo also admitted that he lied about the scheme to FBI and IRS agents.
The case is being prosecuted by Abraham Fine, the assistant U.S. attorney who is also prosecuting former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her partner Andre Jones on several federal corruption and bribery charges.
Also facing charges in that case are David Duong and his son Andy, who own a recycling company, California Waste Solutions, that does business with Oakland.
The Duongs also ran a company that was trying to build and sell modular homes made from shipping containers to help with local homelessness issues.
Azevedo received thousands of dollars from Andy Duong and a business called Duong Family Investments when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of San Leandro in 2022, according to campaign finance records.
Betrayal of ‘sacred trust’
Azevedo has officially “retired” from the City Council — the remaining members of which plan to discuss options for replacing him at its meeting Tuesday.
Azevedo and his lawyer, Steve Kalar, declined to comment as they left the federal courthouse in Oakland on Wednesday afternoon.
San Leandro Mayor Juan Gonzalez posted a video statement online saying Azevedo’s role in the bribery scheme is a betrayal of the “sacred trust” between voters and elected officials.
“And while no one should be judged solely on their worst actions, we can all agree that we, especially we as public servants, that we should follow all laws and uplift our ethical standards,” Gonzalez said. “San Leandro is bigger than any one individual and our city’s integrity is not negotiable.”
