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When the FBI raided the home of controversial Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, it caught the public’s attention in a big way. The mayor swears up and down that she didn’t do anything wrong. Her live-in boyfriend, Andre Jones, is a totally different story. He has connections to local garbage collector California Waste Solutions. The Duong family runs the sanitation company and also happen to be active in local politics. They were raided along with the mayor. The story took a surprise twist when a local “businessman and East Bay Democratic Party insider” reported the Duongs tried to kill him. Twice. His report was made a couple days before the big raids and may have been what prompted them.
Oakland politics get dirty
Oakland “businessman and East Bay Democratic Party insider” Mario Juarez reported to authorities that “he was attacked in two separate incidents earlier this summer, including at the address of the office of recycling company California Waste Solutions.”
That address happens to be shared by several different businesses. The Vietnamese American Business Association is one of them. They sponsored a trip for Mayor Thao to Vietnam. There’s another company using that address, too. Evolutionary Homes, LLC.
The same time the Oakland mayor’s house was being raided last week, the FBI was tossing the office of California Waste Solutions. They also paid visits to the homes of company owner David Duong and his son Andy.
A PAC set up by Oakland businessman Mario Juarez is texting these hyper-negative campaign ads out days before the election, targeting Loren Taylor and his slate running for DCC AD18.
The candidates’ images are heavily photoshopped and the ad calls them “criminals.” pic.twitter.com/LWIA77cGo8
— Darwin BondGraham (@DarwinBondGraha) March 3, 2024
So far, not much has been revealed as to what or who the Federal Bureau of Instigation was after. Things got even more confusing when the lawyer for Juarez, Ernie Castillo, announced that the two “attacks” were actually “attempts on the life of his client.”
The attorney hasn’t “shared a motive for the assaults” and Juarez is keeping quiet. All they’ll say is that they’re “being investigated by the Oakland police.” Probably the FBI as well. Nobody’s sure if there’s a link between what happened to Juarez and the drama last week.
“However, records and online materials reviewed by The Oaklandside indicate that Juarez was in business with members of the Duong family in 2022 and that a potential business dispute may have preceded the alleged attacks and the FBI raids.”
Design and construct mobile homes
Public records confirm that David Duong’s sister, Kristina, “set up a company called Evolutionary Homes LLC.” All the family businesses share the same address. “Mario Juarez is named as an organizer of the company in state corporation filings.” Their website indicates they “design and construct mobile homes.” David is listed as Chairman and Andy as founder.
Evolutionary Homes made the news in Vietnam, back in November 2023. A local station interviewed David Duong, who “explained that the company aims to help solve California’s homelessness crisis.” They may have been using it to further their Oakland based political network.
The month after the Vietnam interview, Mario Juarez was “interviewed by a representative of the Vietnamese American Business Association — a business networking group founded by and controlled by the Duong family.” Juarez “introduced himself as a co-founder of Evolutionary Homes.” He implied the Oakland, California based manufacturer had a nice cozy relationship with FEMA, without actually saying that.
Coincidence — as I’m leaving Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s house after the FBI raid, I saw this truck from California Waste Solutions nearby. We also saw FBI at that company’s offices, and at Andy Duong’s home, whose family owns Cal Waste. You may recall that Duong funded Thao’s… pic.twitter.com/ffJWUfEPea
— Dan Noyes (@dannoyes) June 20, 2024
“A lot of government agencies, they’re interested in doing business with us. They’re doing business with us already. And I think it has a lot to do also with the fact that we speak business to government and we have that level of experience working with government agencies.” It’s not clear if he’s still with the company or if that interview was the true extent of his involvement with the project.
More public records, criminal ones, verify that this past January, “Juarez was charged with felony fraud for allegedly passing bad checks to a mailing company.” The Democrat “hired the company Butterfly Direct Marketing to produce attack ads targeting Loren Taylor.” Who just happened to be running for mayor of Oakland in 2022. The FBI just raided Taylor’s successful opponent.
Someone didn’t like Evolutionary Homes and really didn’t like David Duong. “Unfortunately, David Duong has failed to meet his obligations towards his employees in Mexico, including non-payment of salaries and withholding of wages, resulting in their termination without any form of compensation and leaving with outstanding labor and tax debts. Such actions are unacceptable and violate basic ethical and legal standards.” This rabbit hole actually goes even deeper. We’ll keep you posted with all the gory details, as they come together into more coherent form.
