Back In Court: The Continued Fall Of Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

The past few years have not been kind to disgraced former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.

After narrowly defeating fellow Councilmember Loren Taylor in 2022, Thao went on to have a hard time addressing crime and public safety concerns, as well as struggling to deal with homeless issues. Her controversy around the firing of the police chief LeRonne Armstrong, and her failure to keep the Oakland Athletics from relocating to Las Vegas played a part. Also not so great was the FBI raid on her home, and her subsequent outburst in which she blamed “right wing forces”. While a recall election was only iffy at that time last year, the FBI action spurred more people to put the recall on the election.

She soon became the first Mayor in Oakland history to face a recall election, with early polls not looking too good for her. By August, calls for her to resign grew, while polls showed that more and more in Oakland supported her recall. A poll that came out showed that she garnered a 69% disapproval rating, with 56% of Oakland voters supporting her recall. In the next few months, support for her recall remained high. Only days before the election, Thao’s efforts to stave off the recall eroded further, with former Mayor Libby Schaaf coming out against her and Athletics fans organizing once again to get her out.

In November, she was voted out. In December she handed over the office in disgrace to interim Mayor Nikki Fortunato Bas. And last month? Federal indictment. As it turned out, that FBI raid on her home last summer was for a good reason. According to the allegations by the FBI, Thao and her partner Andre Jones made a deal with recycling business owners Andy and David Duong. According to the alleged deal, Thao would give the Duongs’ a city contract with their recycling business, Cal Waste Solutions, and purchase housing units from them on behalf of the city once elected. In exchange, Jones would get a $300,000 a year no-show job from them and Thao would have the Duongs’ fund a $75,000 mailer before the election.

To them, the alleged deal probably seemed like a good transaction. Too bad the federal government didn’t see it that way and instead brought Thao and Jones in on bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud, and wire fraud charges. The Duong’s got all those plus another fun charge of lying to federal prosecutors.

“The alleged activities of the accused have led to a growing sense of distrust among taxpayers and elected officials,” said Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Linda Nguyen last month during the indictment announcement. “As alleged, David and Andy Duong used bribes to further the profitability of their business interests and to obtain undo influence over the appointment of high-level Oakland city officials.”

Thao, Jones indicted

Coming into February, both Thao and Jones faced up to 35 years in prison each. On Thursday, the case heated up even more. During a simple procedural hearing, Thao’s attorney, Jeff Tsai, introduced her to the court as the Mayor of Oakland. U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers immediately interrupted and corrected him, saying  “Former mayor. You said mayor. She’s not.”

Following the hearing, a visibly shook Thao remained silent upon leaving the courthouse. Tsai, however, left with some remarks.

“The mayor looks forward to defending herself against these charges, showing that there is in fact no evidence to support these charges,” said Tsai. “And we will look forward to doing that in the courtroom.”

However, Thursday’s incident only has seemed to add to Thao’s continued fall from grace and is helping cause United States v. Thao to be one of 2025’s most watched court cases in the state this year.

“Right now everyone is trying not to have this case go to trial,” explained criminal lawyer Alice Reyes to the Globe on Friday. “Usually all parties try to work out a deal in cases like this. But the judge saying that in a courtroom like that isn’t usual. Usually you can forgo saying “former” or say Senator when they were really a state Senator and the judge won’t say a word. She did here.

“This is a big case with a lot of evidence behind it. And serious charges. The judge likely wanted to hammer in the record for everyone. And also to not add to the confusion. The next hearing is in April when the special election is happening. She doesn’t want to make it sound that maybe she is still Mayor.

“In any case, that did not do Thao any favors and they are probably more motivated now to make a deal. Jail time is likely. At the very least her political career is over and she isn’t even 40 yet.”