One of the many characters in whatever scandal prompted the FBI raid on Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home is businessman Mario Juarez, who’s under a separate Alameda County investigation into allegations that he conned $4.25 million from investors.
It must be said that we still don't know what exactly prompted the FBI raid on Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home in late June. But in the nearly two months since, Bay Area journalists have been searching for clues, and making the educated guess that it may have to do with illegal campaign donations from recycling company executives David and Andy Duong, masked to look like they were from other donors, or “straw donors.” And we’ve described one of these alleged straw donors Mario Juarez as a “minor figure” in the unfolding scandal, but he may be a more major figure than anyone realized.
That’s because the Chronicle published an exhaustive investigation Tuesday night that Juarez is under investigation by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for allegedly bilking investors out of $4.25 million on projects that never materialized. But Juarez has not been charged with anything, the investigation appears to be in early stages, and there is no indication that this has anything to do with whatever it is the FBI is investigating.
The Chronicle describes Juarez as “a businessman with a history of financial and legal troubles who unsuccessfully ran for [Oakland] City Council in 2008 and 2012.” He initially bubbled up as a potential figure in this scandal in a KGO report just days after the raids noting that Juarez had bounced $50,000 worth of checks meant to pay for the attack ad mailers against Thao’s 2022 mayoral race opponent Loren Taylor, seen below.
These mailers opposing Loren Taylor and Ignacio De La Fuente in the Oakland mayor's race were sent to voters by a PAC set up by Mario Juarez called California Forward Now. I can't find filings for the PAC but the flip sides explain Juarez paid $41k for these negative ads. pic.twitter.com/VUNVMz2L58
— Darwin BondGraham (@DarwinBondGraha) November 3, 2022
There is also the curious matter that Juarez claims he was beaten up and shot at during two separate incidents, with the alleged beating happening right outside the headquarters of the Duong’s recycling company Cal Waste Solutions. And we also know that the FBI has subpoenaed records from the City of Oakland for information regarding Juarez, the Duongs, and their joint (and failed) “tiny homes for the homeless” venture at the Oakland Army Base.
That venture called Evolutionary Homes is described by Juarez in the early 2024 video above. And Oaklandside has the details of how that deal went completely bad, with both Juarez and the Duongs blaming one another or a large amount of money going into a project that never materialized.
The Alameda County DA’s investigation into Juarez names the Duongs as potential victims, though it's not clear whether this is an investigation into Evolutionary Homes deal. But we do know that both Juarez and the Duongs filed police reports against one another, with the Duongs saying Juarez had threatened them at Cal Waste Solutions headquarters, and Juarez reporting he was beaten up at that location.
The amounts of money potentially lost there are not disclosed. But we do know that Juarez managed to secure a $3 million loan from a company called Balboa LLC, which he said was to develop an Oakland property for a potential lucrative sale. Juarez first purported the property would become a location for the Bay Area Technology School, then changed that story to say that it would be for a cannabis business.
Either way, Balboa LLC loaned Juarez the $3 million, was not paid back, and ended up foreclosing on the property. Balboa representatives told Alameda County DA investigators they ultimately lost $4 million in the deal, and apparently one point investigators were looking into was Juarez’s false claim that he had $400,000 in his personal checking account.
The Chron reports on another deal gone sour, wherein Juarez had allegedly borrowed $250,000 from Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council head Stewart Chen. In that case, Juarez reportedly put up two pieces of property as collateral, but failed to make the payments.
But per the Chronicle's reporting, Juarez did not actually own the properties. When Chen confronted him about this in May, the paper says that Juarez “showed up to his wife’s workplace and lied that [Chen] had hired prostitutes in an attempt to intimidate him.” That incident led to someone reporting the incident to the Oakland Police Department, which led to the Alameda County DA’s probe.
We should note again that there have not been any charges filed against any of the above-named people in these incidents, and it may be that none are guilty of any wrongdoing. But there’s also a chance that many people named above are charged with some wrongdoing. That’s why we're anxiously awaiting more information on the FBI raids, and whatever results may come of this Alameda County DA investigation.
Image: Vietnamese American Business Association via Youtube
