News
FBI raids home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao
OAKLAND — The FBI served a search warrant Thursday morning on the dwelling of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, a part of shock raids centering on a politically influential household answerable for the town’s contracted recycling firm.
Investigators hauled quite a few packing containers out of Thao’s Lincoln Highlands home whereas additionally storming three properties tied to the Duong household, who personal California Waste Options. All of it got here simply days after a recall effort focusing on the first-term mayor certified for the November election, leaving native political observers surprised.
The FBI in a press release confirmed that it was “conducting courtroom approved regulation enforcement exercise on Maiden Lane and Viewcrest Courtroom” but was “unable to offer further data right now.” Public information hyperlink Thao to the Maiden Lane dwelling.
An individual staying within the Lincoln Highlands neighborhood instructed this information group that she awoke at 6 a.m. to the sound of FBI brokers yelling, “Open the door! Open the door!” on the residence subsequent door, the place she stated Thao lives.
“I believed it is likely to be a home disturbance or one thing,” stated Nina Medina, a retired San Diego police detective. “However later, brokers had been going out and in of the residence with gloves on.” One other individual staying with Medina on Maiden Lane stated she noticed a person being escorted out of the residence by brokers, however that he was not detained.
A name to Thao by this information group was not returned Thursday. Makes an attempt to achieve the Duongs weren’t profitable.
“I used to be shocked once I turned on the information this morning. I have no idea what’s going on,” Councilmember Carroll Fife stated in an interview. “I don’t wish to get sidetracked by one thing sensational that none of us have any management over. My aim is to be the management wanted within the metropolis and proceed to maneuver Oakland ahead.”
The raids got here two days after organizers of a recall focusing on Thao introduced they’d submitted sufficient legitimate signatures to get the query on the November poll. Hours after the raids started, the recall’s leaders referred to as on Thao to instantly resign, issuing a press release calling on “the quite a few people and organizations that endorsed Mayor Thao to talk out on these latest occasions.”
Loren Taylor, who completed second to Thao within the November 2022 election, lamented how the raids had been “only one extra distraction” that had turned the town’s consideration away from extra urgent issues.
“Oakland is coping with so many points and so many challenges,” Taylor stated. “We have to have management that’s 100% centered on Oakland and fixing these challenges.”
The raids got here simply hours after what seemed to be the biggest mass taking pictures in Oakland historical past. Fifteen individuals had been injured in a taking pictures Wednesday night, a stunning crime that will usually draw a direct response from the mayor. Thao didn’t supply any touch upon that incident Thursday and didn’t seem at a pre-scheduled occasion on housing that includes the mayors of San Jose and San Francisco.
Different federal authorities additionally raided two different homes within the Oakland Hills and a enterprise workplace alongside the town’s waterfront Thursday morning. All three are tied to Andy Duong and his father, David, who owns the Oakland-based firm California Waste Options, the town’s curbside recycling supplier. CWS additionally has a contract with the town of San Jose.
On Viewcrest Courtroom, a person who lives close by stated that round 4:40 a.m. he heard a loud noise coming from a home on the block, then heard directions aired over a loudspeaker, with an individual saying they had been with the FBI and ordering individuals out of the house with their palms on their heads. He stated he noticed about 10 brokers, some with rifles and a few who seemed to be carrying a hand-held battering ram.
Just a few miles away, regulation enforcement officers carrying police vests and U.S. Postal Inspection uniforms had been seen outdoors a house on the 12500 block of Skyline Boulevard, a property tied to David Duong. One official there declined to remark.
Alongside the town’s waterfront, IRS brokers might be seen carrying quite a few baggage of things from an deal with, 1211 Embarcadero, tied to California Waste Options. Additionally housed in that constructing are the workplaces of the Vietnamese American Enterprise Affiliation. David Duong is the affiliation’s chairman.
The precise paperwork and belongings focused within the raids remained unclear Thursday afternoon, as did the particular focus of the federal companies’ investigation.
The Duongs have been the topic of an investigation by the town’s Public Ethics Fee since 2020 over allegations they used “straw donors,” or obscure third-party entities, to funnel cash to Metropolis Council candidates in previous elections.
Thao, a first-term council member on the time, was accused of receiving cash by way of the alleged straw-donor scheme, together with present council members Rebecca Kaplan and Dan Kalb, plus former councilmembers Larry Reid and Lynette Gibson McElhaney.
In all, the Duongs allegedly used greater than a dozen people and companies to present $51,000 in marketing campaign contributions to Metropolis Council candidates, relationship again to 2013. David Duong instructed the Oaklandside information outlet in 2020 that he had finished nothing fallacious.
Across the similar time, the council met a number of instances in closed-session conferences to debate if they need to settle a lawsuit CWS filed towards the town in 2017. Town had filed its personal swimsuit alleging the recycling firm took benefit of a mistake in its metropolis contract to rake in hundreds of thousands of {dollars} by overcharging clients.
The grievance has remained beneath investigation since then, with few official updates.
Final 12 months, the Vietnamese American Enterprise Affiliation contributed closely to a Bay Space delegation to Vietnam that concerned lunches with international officers and excursions of the nation’s electric-vehicle manufacturing vegetation.
The 11-day enterprise journey was led by Thao — whose personal journey bills had been coated by the Port of Oakland — and included quite a few metropolis and Alameda County officers, together with Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez and Supervisor Lena Tam, together with actor Danny Glover.
The mayor’s spokesperson beforehand confirmed that the Vietnamese enterprise affiliation paid for the journeys of two employees members in Oakland’s division of financial and workforce growth.
