'Money buys everything'

Filling in the blanks, adding context to Oakland's public corruption scandal. Chapter 2 takes the story to end of 2023

☕️MORNING BUZZ

—CHAPTER 2—When it became clear that Sheng Thao would become Oakland’s mayor-elect in late November 2022, “co-conspirator 1” and Andy Duong reveled in the come-from-behind victory.

“So we may go to jail… But we are $100 million dollars richer,” “co-conspirator 1” texted Duong, who replied, “Money buys everything.”

Internal polling had showed Thao likely losing the mayoral election. Thao would finish second in first-place votes to Loren Taylor, but win the election by 677 votes after ranked choice voting tabulations were applied.

Just over one month after Election Day, they met across city limits at a Korean fried chicken chain restaurant in San Leandro where wings bathed in spicy BBQ sauce will set you back about $19.

It was here at this modest location across from a Pet Food Express and a stone’s throw from IHOP that payments from the Duongs to Thao’s boyfriend, Andre Jones, were discussed in order to move along the bribery scheme laid out by the FBI in a indictment handed down on Jan. 18.

“During this meeting, Thao and Jones requested that Andy Duong and “co-conspirator 1” begin making payments to Jones, according to the indictment. Payments to Jones had been flowing in increments of between $2,500 and $5,000 to his bank account since early December 2022, in addition to $20,000 loan, according to the indictment.

Three months later, in March 2023, Thao, Jones; along with David Duong and Andy Duong, the owners of California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s recycling franchise holder, met again, albeit, at a fancier dining establishment overlooking the bay in Berkeley.

The anxiety that riddled Thao, her campaign, and associates over the likelihood of losing the mayoral election, along with the desperation that pushed them to entering the alleged bribery scheme with the Duongs, had quickly morphed into extreme hubris…

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