The hammer finally came down on former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao seven months after the FBI raided her home, and she now faces charges that she received kickbacks from major political donors, including a $95,000 no-show job for her romantic partner.

A full seven months after the FBI raided the home of then-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, we still never knew why the FBI pulled that raid, nor whether Thao herself was even suspected of wrongdoing. But we certainly had well-informed theories that this involved campaign money laundering by well-connected political mega-donors David and Andy Duong (their homes and offices were also raided that day), who are the owners of Cal Waste Solutions, which handles recycling collection in Oakland. And it also seemed the FBI had their eyes on Thao’s longtime romantic partner Andre Jones, who also had his phones seized by the FBI.

We learned Thursday that Thao would indeed be indicted by the feds, though for what we did not know. And we found out Friday morning when US Department of Justice officials announced the charges against Thao, Jones, and the Duongs.

The Bay Area News Group reports that Thao and the others are charged with bribery, mail fraud, and making false statements to authorities. All four face eight charges for giving or accepting kickbacks in exchange for deals the benefited the Duongs’ businesses.

“Today we are announcing the unsealing of an eight-count indictment by a federal grand jury sitting in Oakland that charges four defendants, including the former Mayor of Oakland Sheng Thao, with various bribery offenses,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Patrick D. Robbins said at the press conference. “The indictment returned by the grand jury describes a corrupt scheme in which the defendants used bribes, mail fraud, wire fraud and other illegal practices to manipulate and corruptly influence the levers of local government.”

The feds allege that the conspiracy began October 2022, just one month before Thao was elected mayor.

“Weeks before that election, Thao made commitments to take official actions as mayor that would benefit the Duongs,” Robbins added. Thao and Jones allegedly agreed the city would purchase housing units from Duongs real estate interests, extend Cal Waste Solutions’ recycling contracts, and use influence to appoint what Robbins called a “high-level city official” whom the Duongs preferred. That official was not named, so there may be more shoes to drop here.

The charges also mention the under-the-table payments of political mailers to help Thao’s campaign, something we’ve known about for months. But they also charge that Andre Jones received $95,000 from the Duongs “disguised as wages for a no-show job,” which is a new revelation.

Federal agents admitted that the investigation indeed stemmed from a 2019 Oakland Public Ethics Commission investigation into the Duongs’ use of “straw donors,” that is, people who they would pay to make political donations for them, hence hiding the real source of the money.

Bay Area News Group dug an interesting item out of the indictment, saying that someone described as “Co-Conspirator 1” was discussing election results with the Duongs, noting that their preferred candidate Thao would win the mayoship, but their not-preferred candidate Pamela Price would win the Alameda County DA race.

“So we may go to jail… but we are $100 million dollars (sic) richer,” Co-Conspirator 1 said, according to the indictment.

“Money buys everything,” Duong allegedly said back.

Co-Conspirator 1 is probably Mario Juarez, a longtime alleged straw donor for the Duongs who faced felony charges from Pamela Price’s office for bouncing $50,000 worth of checks for those above-mentioned political mailers. Juarez had received a total of $295,000 in payments from the Duongs and ABC Security Services, which also does a lot of business with the City of Oakland.

Juarez was also involved with the Duongs over a city contract to provide tiny homes for the homeless on a former Army base. That deal went south, as did Juarez’s relationship with the Duongs. It is widely believed that the feds flipped Juarez and made him their main informant in this investigation, which could explain wh Juarez was beaten up and had gunshots fired at his home in May and June of 2024.  

As the New York Times points out, all of this corruption actually had little to do with why Thao was recalled in this past November’s elections. The recall was mostly fueled by anger over rampant crime, the loss of the Oakland A’s, and blowback over her firing Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong. Though yes, the optics of Thao’s house being raided by the FBI during the recall election season likely cost her a pretty significant degree of support.

Thao, Jones, and the Duongs are all being arraigned on the charges this morning, and none of them are in custody at this time. And they will get their chance to prove their claimed innocence.

But federal officials repeatedly stated at Friday morning’s press conference that the investigation is “still ongoing,” and that could still mean trouble for other East Bay officials.

Related: Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Is, Indeed, Getting Indicted [SFist]

Image: 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)