Former Oakland, California, Mayor Sheng Thao, who was recalled by voters in November, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on corruption costs.
Along with Thao, the Justice Division charged her boyfriend, Andre Jones; the pinnacle of a neighborhood waste firm, David Trung Duong; and Duong’s son, Andy Hung Duong.
In October 2022, Thao allegedly agreed to increase a metropolis recycling services contract with California Waste Options, buy housing models from the Duongs and use her affect to assist them.
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Ex-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao stands together with her lawyer after being indicted on corruption costs. (KTVU)
“Examples of guarantees allegedly made by Thao included her settlement to buy housing models from an organization owned by the Duong household, her settlement to make sure the extension of a contract for recycling companies that the Metropolis of Oakland had with considered one of David and Andy Duong’s firms and her settlement to make use of affect to assist appoint a high-level metropolis official to learn the Duongs’ enterprise pursuits,” stated U.S. Lawyer Patrick Robbins.
The Duongs made funds to Thao and Jones, together with funding a $75,000 detrimental mailer marketing campaign focusing on her political rivals, Fox San Francisco reported. The Duongs additionally made $300,000 in funds to Thao and Jones disguised as wages for a no-show job for Jones, federal prosecutors stated.
The funds had been made to look as if Jones had a official job with the Duongs’ housing firm to cowl up the bribery, based on courtroom paperwork.
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Andre Jones, who can be charged within the indictment (KTVU)
After getting elected, Thao fulfilled her promise to make use of her affect to nominate an Oakland metropolis official, chosen by the Duongs, to guard the household’s enterprise investments, authorities stated.
“The indictment itself is chock-full of allegations, however it’s not chock-full of proof,” Thao’s lawyer stated Friday.
The fees got here months after the FBI raided a house linked to Thao.
Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who was recalled final yr, faces corruption costs. (Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle by way of Getty Photos)
In a press release to Fox San Francisco, Winston Chan, an lawyer for Andy Duong, stated the allegations towards his consumer haven’t any benefit.
“We’ve got saved quiet regardless of the media frenzy of the previous months within the hope that the federal government would appropriately come to see by way of goal investigation that the allegations are baseless and being fanned by nothing greater than gossip and supposition stitched collectively by the fabrications and delusions of those that lack all basic credibility,” stated Chan.
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“However, disappointingly, Andy as a substitute is at the moment the newest in a protracted line of Asian Individuals who unfairly are singled out and compelled to pay a worth for daring to be lively within the political sphere,” he added. “We stay up for clearing his good title earlier than the courtroom and a jury of his friends.”
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