OAKLAND — The FBI served a search warrant Thursday morning on the residence of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, a part of shock raids centering on a politically influential household in control of town’s contracted recycling firm.
Investigators hauled quite a few 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 concentrating 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 court docket approved regulation enforcement exercise on Maiden Lane and Viewcrest Courtroom” but was “unable to supply extra data presently.” Public information hyperlink Thao to the Maiden Lane residence.
An individual staying within the Lincoln Highlands neighborhood informed 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 mentioned Thao lives.
“I believed it may be a home disturbance or one thing,” mentioned Nina Medina, a retired San Diego police detective. “However later, brokers have been going out and in of the residence with gloves on.” One other particular person staying with Medina on Maiden Lane mentioned 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 mentioned in an interview. “I don’t need 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 concentrating 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 known 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 have been “only one extra distraction” that had turned town’s consideration away from extra urgent issues.
“Oakland is coping with so many points and so many challenges,” Taylor mentioned. “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 most important mass capturing in Oakland historical past. Fifteen individuals have been injured in a capturing Wednesday night, a stunning crime that may usually draw a direct response from the mayor. Thao didn’t provide 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 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, town’s curbside recycling supplier. CWS additionally has a contract with town of San Jose.
On Viewcrest Courtroom, a person who lives close by mentioned 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 have been with the FBI and ordering individuals out of the house with their palms on their heads. He mentioned he noticed about 10 brokers, some with rifles and a few who seemed to be carrying a hand-held battering ram.
A couple of miles away, regulation enforcement officers carrying police vests and U.S. Postal Inspection uniforms have been seen exterior a house on the 12500 block of Skyline Boulevard, a property tied to David Duong. One official there declined to remark.
Alongside town’s waterfront, IRS brokers may very well be seen carrying quite a few baggage of things from an tackle, 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 precise focus of the federal companies’ investigation.
The Duongs have been the topic of an investigation by 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 via 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 offer $51,000 in marketing campaign contributions to Metropolis Council candidates, relationship again to 2013. David Duong informed the Oaklandside information outlet in 2020 that he had executed 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 in opposition to 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 criticism has remained below 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 have 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.