Sheng Thao’s partner also appears to be involved in FBI investigations

The Oakland District Attorney may have insight into the investigation following the FBI raid on the mayor’s home, and Sheng Thao’s partner has been named. Oh, and just recently, a karaoke club has become embroiled in the scandal with alleged drug and human trafficking.

Two and a half weeks after the shocking FBI raid on Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home, there is still no official statement about why the raid took place or whether Mayor Thao herself is even a target of the FBI investigation. But when Thao gave her heated and combative press conference four days later denying any wrongdoing, our reporting noted that Thao’s former chief of staff, Renia Webb, served in that capacity when Thao was a city councilman and during the mayoral campaign.

“I found out that Andre, their boyfriend, was promising people jobs in our administration, promising them positions on various commissions and boards,” Webb told KPIX a few weeks ago. “I definitely believe that from the mouths of the people who told me about it, they were promised positions, they were promised board positions. And (they always said) Andre, you know? That’s the one they said, ‘Andre promised me this.'”

She means a gentleman named Andre Jones. And she may have been on to something, because the Chronicle is now reporting that the Oakland District Attorney’s Office sent a memo to dozens of city employees telling them not to delete any communications involving Jones or Oakland’s recycling company, Cal Waste Solutions, or that company’s top executives, David and Andy Duong, who happen to be prolific political donors.

The Chronicle has obtained the email, sent last week to an unknown number of Oakland city employees, warning them that they must preserve “all electronic and written documents” on a range of issues “related to a federal grand jury subpoena.”

So the subpoena by a federal grand jury is new news, though not surprising news considering there has already been an FBI raid. The Chron reports that Oakland officials have been instructed to preserve all communications about Thao’s partner Jones, the Duongs, Cal and Waste Solutions, as well as a proposed tiny home project for the homeless at Oakland Army Base.

This tiny home project also involved an obvious suspect in the Duongs’ alleged “straw man donor” scheme, Oakland real estate agent Mario Juarez. The Duongs have allegedly had a falling out with Juarez since then, and whether it’s related or not, Juarez claims he’s been beaten and shot at his home over the past two months.

Things get even shadier. Oaklandside reported last week that the younger Andy Duong allegedly laundered campaign contributions through the manager of an Oakland eatery called the Music Cafe. That report also suggested that Duong was the real owner of the Music Cafe, despite manager Charlie Ngo posing as such.

Why is this interesting? Because agents from state broadcaster ABC shut down the Music Cafe in 2018 after undercover investigators discovered that ketamine, cocaine, ecstasy and the services of sex workers were being sold there.

According to follow-up reporting by the Bay Area News Group, the Music Cafe closed in 2018, four months after the ABC raid. But Ngo was allegedly a fake donor to the campaigns of former Oakland City Councilors Desley Brooks, Larry Reid and Rebecca Kaplan, as well as other Milpitas and San Jose city councilors. This was despite the fact that Ngo often had less than $10 in his bank account and yet received mysterious infusions of cash shortly before donations.

None of the elected officials named above are suspected of any wrongdoing in connection with this conspiracy.

Related: We get clues as to why the FBI raided Sheng Thao’s home, and other Oakland politicians may be concerned too (SFist)

Image: OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 13: Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao arrives at the premiere of “Stephen Curry: Underrated” during the 66th San Francisco International Film Festival at Grand Lake Theater on April 13, 2023 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images)