NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 02: Sheng Thao speaks onstage at the TAAF Heritage Month Summit at The Glasshouse on May 02, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by JP Yim/Getty Images for The Asian American Foundation)
OAN’s Abril Elfi
5:08 PM – Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has denied any wrongdoing and even went as far as to suggest that the recent FBI raid on her home was due to “right-wing” efforts in an organized conspiracy against her.
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Four days after the FBI raided Thao’s (D-Calif.) residence, the mayor read a prepared statement and took no questions.
“I want to know what probable cause the FBI has. What evidence have they collected that justifies raiding the home of a sitting mayor without notice and without the courtesy of a conversation?” she asked. “I want to know more about the handful of billionaires from San Francisco and Piedmont who are hellbent on running me out of office. I want to know why the day following the qualification of a recall election funded by some of the richest people in the Bay Area seemed like the right day to execute a warrant. I want to know how the TV cameras knew to show up on my sleepy residential street so early in the morning to capture footage of the raid. And I want to know why Fox News and Breibart were so prepared to fan the flames and to tell a story that they want to tell—to bend the facts to shape a narrative.”
The mayor added that: “this wouldn’t have gone down the way it did if I was rich, if I had gone to elite private schools, or if I had come from money.” However, according to multiple outlets, including The Super Slice who wrote about Thao on June 21st, Thao’s net worth is well over 1 million and she’s currently the fourth highest paid mayor in California.
She continued in her public statement.
“There are a lot of radical right-wing forces who know they will never win an election in Oakland, fair and square… They have built the rules to protect and preserve their power and maintain dominance over the rest of us.”
Mayor Thao and her son were reportedly at home on Thursday morning when the sudden raid occurred.
An affluent CEO named David Duong and his son Andy are the owners of the other two residences that were searched on Thursday in relation to alleged corruption in Oakland.
“Duong heads California Waste Solutions (Cal Waste), Oakland’s curbside recycling contractor. He’s also the co-chair of the Vietnamese American Business Association (VABA). According to CBS News, in addition to the residences, federal agents served warrants at offices shared by Cal Waste and VABA on Thursday,” the organization California City News reported.
Regarding the raids, the FBI has remained silent. But according to Reina Webb, Thao’s former chief of staff, she was interviewed by federal agents and she could tell they were looking into a possible pay-to-play scheme of some sort. In 2022, Webb announced her resignation, citing unethical behavior by both Thao and her partner, Andre Jones.
Furthermore, the CBS I-Team was informed by Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission’s lead investigator that the Duongs remain under investigation for possible money laundering.
“Court documents we’ve reviewed allege that Andy Duong arranged contributions to candidates, including Sheng Thao, using straw donors,” CBS stated. “Some of the phony donors allegedly came from Phuc Tran, President of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce. In response, Phuc Tran said he wouldn’t cooperate in the investigation based on his Fifth Amendment right ‘to be free from being compelled to incriminate himself.’”
In 2021, Cal Waste and Oakland reached a settlement over claims that the company had overcharged its customers by up to 550%.
Another major focus is purportedly on Thao’s VABA-sponsored trip to Vietnam in 2023. Actor Danny Glover, Oakland Port Commissioner Danny Wan, Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez, San Leandro City Manager Bryan Azevedo, and Supervisor Lena Tam of Alameda County had also attended.
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