From secretly recorded videos and phone calls to text messages and financial documents, federal prosecutors have outlined more than 1,800 pieces of evidence they could potentially present to the jury during the corruption trial involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her partner Andre Jones, and prominent East Bay businessmen David and Andy Duong.
The trial kicked off Tuesday with jury selection.
Prosecutors allege the Duongs helped fund Thao’s 2022 mayoral campaign and paid bribes to Jones in exchange for promises that Thao, once elected, would steer city business to their companies and grant them influence within City Hall.
All four defendants have pleaded not guilty.
The government’s evidence includes a 2022 video showing the prosecution’s main witness, Mario Juarez, offering a toast inside California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s recycling contractor owned by David Duong.
Juarez co-founded Evolutionary Homes, one of the companies at the heart of the alleged bribery scheme, with Andy and David Duong. Federal prosecutors allege the bribe payments were made, in part, so that Thao would commit to purchasing 100 housing units from the company if she were elected mayor.
“Hopefully this is one of the many projects that we did together that we make a lot of money on,” Juarez says in the video, recorded about a month before Thao went on to win her bid for mayor. “So, to that, I’ll toast to you guys.”
Juarez previously pleaded guilty to bribery in the Oakland corruption case, and attorneys for the defendants have attacked his credibility, stating in court filings that “he has faced previous arrests, charges and fraud allegations.”
Federal prosecutors have also indicated they plan to introduce at least four recordings of phone calls between Andy Duong and Oakland city officials, including Thao. Prosecutors allege one 2019 call between Thao and Duong, recovered from Duong’s phone after his arrest, is evidence of the pair’s “deep and long-term relationship as it related to business before the City of Oakland” and that they sought to keep their arrangements private.
In the call, Thao suggests changing the location of a planned meeting because the original location was too public.
“I don’t think it’s private enough for us to have this full conversation,” Thao tells Andy Duong. “It is just not private enough.”
Attorneys for Thao and Andy Duong have not responded to NBC Bay Area’s inquiries about the recordings.
Prosecutors also point to dozens of text messages described in a September court filing that they are evidence of the alleged bribery scheme.
In one message, prosecutors allege Juarez sent Andy Duong a text telling him that Thao agreed to purchase 100 housing units from Evolutionary Homes in exchange for money.
Prosecutors summarized another message they said Andy Duong sent to his family’s group chat shortly after the 2022 election, which allegedly stated that “Sheng is winning,” that he gambled “big,” and that they “have it all.”
Other evidence expected to be presented includes financial records from the defendants and Evolutionary Homes, along with emails related to Thao’s mayoral campaign.
