The former mayor of Oakland, a far-left progressive Democrat who was recalled by voters in November, was indicted by federal officials on Friday and accused of accepting bribes from powerful members of a local family who helped her win election.
Former mayor Sheng Thao, her longtime boyfriend, Andre Jones, and two members of a powerful local family, David and Andy Duong, are listed as defendants on the 22-page indictment, which accuses them of a variety of offenses, including engaging in a conspiracy, bribery, and making false statements to authorities.
The indictment was announced seven months after FBI agents raided Thao’s home and three properties associated with the Duong family. The Duongs’ company, California Waste Solutions, hold’s Oakland’s curbside recycling contract.
“The indictment returned by the grand jury describes a corrupt scheme in which the defendants used bribes, mail fraud, wire fraud and other illegal practices to manipulate and corruptly influence the levers of local government,” Patrick Robbins, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
According to the indictment, Thao and Jones “engaged in a corrupt relationship” with the Duongs in the lead-up to the 2022 mayoral election, which was narrowly won by Thao, then a city councilwoman. Thao “promised to take official action as mayor of Oakland to benefit” the Duongs “in exchange for various benefits,” the indictment states.
Thao promised to commit the city to purchasing housing units from the Duongs’ housing company, to extend the recycling contract with the Duongs, and to appoint senior city officials selected by the Duongs, according to the indictment. In exchange, the Doungs and a co-conspirator “promised to pay $75,000 to fund negative mailers targeting [Thao’s] opponents in the mayoral election and to make $300,000 in direct payments for a no-show job to [Jones] for the benefit or [Thao and Jones],” the indictment states.
Thao took office in January 2023 and took steps to benefit the Duongs and their co-conspirator, “including using her influence to help appoint a high-level city official and taking other steps to benefit” the Duongs’ housing and recycling companies, the indictment states.
Oakland residents overwhelmingly voted to recall Thao in November, less than two years into her four-year term. In her short time at the city’s helm, she faced a flood of criticism over her leadership of the city, which has struggled with high and persistent levels of crime and seen several high-profile companies leave. Thao’s opponents accused her of being dishonest and incompetent, and blamed her for accelerating the city’s decline.
Thao called the recall effort unfair and “undemocratic,” pointing blame for her political troubles at “millionaires and billionaires,” coal-industry investors opposed to the Green New Deal, and “radical right-wing forces” in deep-blue Oakland who’ve “built the rules to protect and preserve their power and maintain dominance over the rest of us.”