Federal prosecutors say Andy Duong, an owner of California Waste Solutions, took secret photos and videos of politicians in compromising positions for potential use against them.
The government seized Duong’s phone in June 2024, and prosecutors found numerous videos and recorded calls, including dozens of videos “showing various public officials dancing at clubs, drinking alcohol, or engaging in party-like behavior.”
Investigators say they found “dozens of such videos, photos, and recordings” on his phone.
Witness Mario Juarez will testify that Duong told him “he regularly took surreptitious photos and videos of politicians in compromising positions for potential use against them,” which is allegedly corroborated by media recovered from Duong’s phone.
In one video investigators found on his phone, Duong took photos of Oakland’s housing department director dancing with “scantily-clad women” at a karaoke bar in February 2023.
The government alleges that Duong was filming to secure blackmail material.
In a text exchange before this evening cited by prosecutors, Juarez asked Duong for a good day to take “Larry Gallegos to party — he is a devoted Christian — think of his sins while he parties.”
Bombshell court filings reveal allegations of bribery and corruption involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her partner, and the owners of California Waste Solutions.
The federal indictment alleges that the owners of California Waste Solutions, David and Andy Duong, bribed then-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, in exchange for Thao’s promise to use her office to help the Duongs.
The feds began investigating after checks Juarez wrote for the 2022 political attack ads bounced. Juarez later had a dramatic falling-out with the Duongs and fed information to the FBI that led to the June 2024 raids of the homes of Thao and Jones and the Duongs, along with the California Waste Solutions building.
The evidence also includes recorded phone conversations — including one in which then-Mayor Sheng Thao said she did not want to be seen in public with the Duongs.
Prosecutors say she was trying to conceal what they were doing.
“Yeah, we got massages and there were women around,” Bryan Azevedo told Dan Noyes in April 2025. “It doesn’t mean we did anything.”
Azevedo says the FBI questioned him about the Vietnam trip, about being stopped at customs on the way home, but that it wasn’t for drugs.
He tells me he packed five souvenir lighters from a Vietnamese casino. “And they told me I can only keep one. So, that’s how rumors get out there.
“Yeah, we have–they’re saying we had prostitutes, all this stuff–yeah, we got massages. That doesn’t mean they’re prostitutes. We had people serving drinks or whatever.”
In February, Azevedo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and lying to a federal agency. As part of his plea agreement, Azevedo admitted that he took steps to try to help Evolutionary Homes win a contract with the city of San Leandro in exchange for a $2,000 bribe and a portion of future housing sales.
David Duong and his son “took steps intended to prevent the story about Azevedo’s conduct … from becoming public,” and prosecutors said the Duongs gave an “associate” of the reporter a $10,000 check to kill the news story.
In the viral moment that exposed the scandal, court documents reveal that
a video recorded by Andy Duong depicts himself, Azevedo, and others in a car on August 5, 2023, during the Vietnam trip. In the video, prosecutors say that the group can be heard “discussing sexual interactions from the previous evening.”
Prosecutors plan to introduce evidence related to an August 2023 Vietnam junket to highlight the relationship between Thao and the other alleged coconspirators. The trip was organized by the Vietnamese American Business Association, a group controlled by the Duong family.
After the junket ended, the Duongs allegedly paid $9,000 for Thao to take a vacation with her son to Thailand.
Juarez has pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bribery — likely in exchange for a lenient sentence.
The four defendants have pleaded not guilty.
The trial is set in federal court for October.