Oakland Report is taking a closer look at the federal corruption case against former mayor Sheng Thao. In this installment, we reproduce in full a court exhibit that includes the transcript of a January 2024 recorded telephone call between Andy Duong and an Oakland city council member whose name is withheld in the filing.
The call transcript is available in public court records. Duong’s lawyers want to exclude it from the trial
The document reproduced below is a court reporter’s transcription of an eight-minute telephone call on Jan. 19, 2024, between Andy Duong — California Waste Solutions (CWS) executive and co-founder of modular housing venture Evolutionary Homes — and an Oakland city council member whose name is withheld in the exhibit.
Federal prosecutors filed it on September 3 in United States v. Sheng Thao, as Exhibit A to a declaration by assistant U.S. attorney Molly Priedeman supporting the government’s opposition to a defense motion to keep much of it out of the trial.1
Oakland Report verified the transcript against the copy on the court’s public docket, which is available for public view.
Federal prosecutors first described the recording in pretrial filings on July 24 as a phone call Duong recorded with an unnamed Oakland council member about recall campaigns, including the one against then-mayor Sheng Thao.2
The exhibit withholds two identities: the council member, and the county’s elected prosecutor, shown in the transcript as “[local elected prosecutor].”
Alameda County’s district attorney in January 2024 was Pamela Price. The exhibit does not name her. No current or former Oakland council member has been charged in the case.
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Background
A federal grand jury indicted Thao, her longtime partner Andre Jones, CWS president and CEO David Duong, and his son Andy Duong on Jan. 9, 2025, on conspiracy, bribery and honest-services fraud charges. The grand jury further indicted the younger Duong with lying to federal agents.
Prosecutors allege that Thao promised to commit the city to buy modular housing units from the Duongs’ housing company, as well as to extend CWS’s recycling contract with the city and appoint officials the Duongs selected.
In exchange, prosecutors allege, Thao was to be the beneficiary of a $75,000 negative mailer campaign against her 2022 opponents, and her partner Jones paid $95,000 for a no-show job. All four have pleaded not guilty.34
Mario Juarez, identified in court records as “Co-Conspirator 1,” and former San Leandro council member Bryan Azevedo have pleaded guilty in related cases and are on the government’s witness list.56
On June 20, 2024, FBI agents raided the homes of Thao, Jones and the Duongs, and CWS’s offices.7
Oakland voters recalled Thao on Nov. 5, 2024, the same day county voters recalled Price.8
The trial is scheduled to begin October 19 with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers presiding.910
How the call transcript reached the public docket
The transcript is not evidence the government chose to actively publicize. On August 27, Andy Duong’s lawyers moved to exclude parts of this recording, along with other evidence, from the trial. In their motion to exclude the evidence, the defense argued that it is irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial to the proceedings.
Prosecutors attached the transcript to their written opposition, filed September 3 with Priedeman’s declaration. From there it made its way into the public court records.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers is scheduled to hear argument on the motion in Oakland on September 11. Whether jurors will hear the recording during the trial is not yet decided.
The context of the call
The call was placed three weeks after Oakland police officer Tuan Le was shot and killed on Dec. 29, 2023, while responding to a burglary near Jack London Square.11 The killing occurred about two weeks after organizers announced a recall campaign against Thao, and while a separate campaign to recall Price was gathering signatures.1213
What the call was about
The call begins with the council member’s greeting: “Andy, what’s up, brother?” Duong answers, “More bitches, more bitches, brother.”
The council member replies, “More bitches. Bring ‘em all here.”
Duong then raises a text he had sent about “the cruise tomorrow” — “If you can roll then we can party up up in the yacht.” After the council member begs off the invitation, Duong says he will “keep you posted on another one. Next them we do a — a private one for us only.”
Later in the call, Duong tells the council member that “we put a stop to” the recall after meeting with “Nikki” — apparently a reference to then-council president Nikki Fortunato Bas.14 Duong says he “confronted” the prosecutor and gave her “the opportunity” to prosecute the men accused of killing Officer Le, adding that “a lot of folks is hitting us up to fund the recall.”
Duong recounts telling “Sheng” that if she wanted “another term” she had “better start acting right” about spending “the fund” on housing units, after which “Jestin” — a reference to then-city administrator Jestin Johnson, according to prosecutors — “showed up,” which Duong calls a “win-win” that would “save their next election and the recall.”
Duong goes on to says that a council member he calls “Carol” was angry the city had not “bought unit from you guys.”
The council member asks Duong to line up business owners to support a coming RV policy.
Duong invites the council member to tour the units at his Embarcadero office.
The council member replies, “Just shoot me some dates and I’ll come over.”
Oakland Report presents the full transcript below for readers to review.
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Names and references in the transcript
The speakers refer to several people by first name only. The identifications below are Oakland Report’s reading of the context, not the court’s. Apart from Andy Duong and Sheng Thao, no one listed here is charged in this case.
Andy Duong — Executive with California Waste Solutions and co-founder of Evolutionary Homes, according to the indictment. Duong is a defendant in the trial and has pleaded not guilty.
“Sheng” — Sheng Thao, mayor of Oakland from January 2023 until her recall took effect in December 2024. Thao is a defendant in the trial and has pleaded not guilty.
“Nikki” — Nikki Fortunato Bas, Oakland City Council president from 2021-2024; then served as interim mayor. She is now an Alameda County supervisor. Fortunato Bas is named on the government’s witness list.
“Carol” — Council member Carroll Fife, whose District 3 includes West Oakland; Duong refers to “her West Oakland.” Fife has said she toured an Evolutionary Homes model at the California Waste Solutions building in early 2024.
“Jestin” — Jestin Johnson, Oakland city administrator at the time of the call, who later resigned amid a text messaging scandal. Johnson is named on the government’s witness list.
“[local elected prosecutor]” — The name of this person was redacted by the filer. The Alameda County district attorney in January 2024 was Pamela Price, whom voters recalled on Nov. 5, 2024.
“Carl” / “Carl Chan” — President of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and a principal officer of Save Alameda For Everyone, the committee behind the Price recall.15
“Greg McConnell” — Longtime Oakland business lobbyist.16
“Loren” — Loren Taylor, former council member and runner-up to Thao in the 2022 mayoral election. Thao won by 677 ranked-choice votes.17
“Ignacio” — Ignacio De La Fuente, former council president and a 2022 mayoral candidate.18
“Tuan Le” — Oakland police officer Tuan Le, 36, killed in the line of duty on Dec. 29, 2023.
“the units” / “the office, Embarcadero” — Evolutionary Homes displayed converted shipping container modular housing units at the California Waste Solutions headquarters at 1211 Embarcadero, where prosecutors say the city administrator toured the showroom.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER — The Oakland council member with whom the younger Duong was speaking on the call is not named in the exhibit. Duong’s motion describes the other speaker as an uncharged local politician and an uncharged Oakland official.
Other considerations: what Andy Duong’s lawyers argue
The transcript is available in the public court docket. Oakland Report is publishing the transcript in full below for readers to review.
Andy Duong has asked the court to keep parts of it from the jury. His argument, from his August 27 motion, is summarized below without rebuttal, for readers to review and consider.
The recording, Duong’s lawyers write, contains “no mention of alleged bribery or payments of any kind,” and so has no bearing on the charge that Duong bribed Thao.
They ask the court to exclude the first minute of the call on grounds that it would paint Duong to the jury as a “foul-mouthed party boy” under Rule 403, which allows a judge to bar relevant evidence when its prejudicial effect substantially outweighs its value as proof.
Duong’s lawyers also ask the court to exclude the passage in which Duong describes confronting the elected prosecutor and heading off the recall, arguing that neither the murder case nor his relationship with that prosecutor bears on the bribery charges. They assert that the passage would suggest to jurors that he is politically corrupt in a general way.
They argue in the alternative that if prosecutors are offering the passage as evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), the government missed the court’s May 19, 2026 deadline to give written notice of how it intends to use such evidence.
An appendix to the motion indexes the specific portions of the recording Duong seeks to exclude.
Duong is represented by Winston Chan and Christine Bonomo of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; W. Douglas Sprague and Bryanna Walker of Covington & Burling; and Erik Babcock of the Law Offices of Erik Babcock.
The transcript
Transcription note: The text below reproduces the court reporter’s transcript verbatim, including filler words, grammar as spoken, and profanity. Bracketed text (for example, “[local elected prosecutor]”) is shown as it appears in the filed exhibit.
(Begin transcription 00:00 – 08:20)
(Telephone ringing.)
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Andy, what’s up, brother?
ANDY DUONG: More bitches, more bitches, brother.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: More bitches. Bring ‘em all here.
ANDY DUONG: What’s up, brother? How you doing? You out of town?
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Nah. I’m here. I’m at City Hall right now. What you up to?
ANDY DUONG: Just, you know, been busy. Back to back meeting all night and stuff. Yesterday they, uh — followed by yesterday, too. Just trying to wrap up the week. But, umm, I just want to give you a call, if you got my text about the, uh, the cruise tomorrow.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Yeah, I got it. I can’t make it tomorrow. I’m supposed to, like, be in Sacramento and be with my girlfriend at the same time.
ANDY DUONG: Oh.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: It’s crazy.
ANDY DUONG: Oh, shit. Okay, okay. Yeah, it’s all good.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Yeah.
ANDY DUONG: But, yeah, but it would have been a, you know, a good event. Just want to, you know, make sure that you get the invitation. If you can roll then we can party up up in the yacht. But, uh, yeah. I’ll keep you posted on another one. Next them we do a — a private one for us only.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Okay. For sure. What’s up? Uh, are these recalls gonna go through?
ANDY DUONG: Uh, what’s that?
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Are these recalls gonna go through?
ANDY DUONG: Oh, the recall? Nah. We — we put a stop to it. We — I met up with, uh, with Nikki. Uh, and you know, of course Nikki’s working, you know, close with, uh, with Sheng. So, uh, we temporary put a stop. But in terms of [local elected prosecutor], I give her, you know — umm, I confronted her, give her the opportunity to, you know, take the lead on prosecuting all the criminals that, you know, kill the officer, you know, Tuan Le. So —
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: (Unintelligible.)
ANDY DUONG: — uh, she said that, you know, she’s going after them, pushing for, you know, 50 years and possibility no parole. But she needs more evidence to do the enhancement on proving that, you know, the criminal knew that it was, you know, a cop. So —
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Yeah.
ANDY DUONG: Yep. We — we — we waiting. We giving her, you know, the opportunity to, you know, to take the action. If not, then, you know, the community gonna continue on their path, which is the recall. And a lot of folks is hitting us up to fund the recall. So, you know, we just, uh, uh, trying to confront and give the opportunity to [local elected prosecutor] first to see what — what will she do. But we did the Unity healing last Saturday. Carol, Nikki was there, [local elected prosecutor] was there. And then now we’re gonna do a forum for all of the questionnaire. But, yeah, I think right now is okay in terms of, you know, uh, umm, the API community. Uh, but, you know, we got a lot of folks together, uh, like, you know, from church, all of, you know, the African American community, and they — they gonna work with us, uh, patrolling, somewhat volunteering in downtown, too. So we united stronger than ever. So that’s a good thing.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Okay. I mean, you gotta tell [local elected prosecutor] to keep people in jail. Don’t let them right out.
ANDY DUONG: Yeah. I mean, that’s — ‘cause — you know, that’s why she’s running around. She ain’t afraid that anybody gonna, you know, assassinate her because the fact that she know that she ain’t gonna keep nobody in jail, you know.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Yeah. They all love her, man.
ANDY DUONG: Yeah. Catch, release, catch, release. But it’s about time.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: That’s right.
ANDY DUONG: I mean, she — she’s got to do something ‘cause, you know, there’s a lot of, you know, folks that, you know, committed, you know, a crime that she’s trying to match peace with that kill, you know, an officer, uh, the same life sentence. Which is, you know, is only 25 years, so.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Yeah.
ANDY DUONG: But she got to step up because if she don’t then, you know, it’s gonna jeopardize her — pretty much her, you know, her office. And people already, you know, gather a lot of, you know, petition. And — and now they just wrap up the fund. So if she don’t take the action on it right, on the right path, then, yeah, she’s — she’s gonna get fucked big time.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: So what’s up with — so Sheng’s got people?
ANDY DUONG: Yeah. Well, Sheng is part of it, right? So what happened was, uh, there was some other folks in the Vietnamese community that was teaming up with, you know, Carl Chan, too, that was trying to, you know, recall, you know. And, you know, Greg McConnell, all that group, they’re trying to unite and recall Sheng and Nikki and [local elected prosecutor]. So I pull — uh, when Nikki was there, I pull the folks that was participating with, you know, Carl Chan and them and I say, aye, you know, just back off and don’t attend those event and do not involve. Because now you involve, you bring in the Vietnamese community in there. So, uh, she, you know, admitted and committed that they will back off, uh, you know, on that part or participating with, you know, Carl and Greg McConnell so that way, you know, they can, uh, uh, we can avoid and mitigate the recall on Nikki and Sheng. So we — we helped them on that already. But, you know, uh, Carl, he has that personal, you know, hatred and also Greg McConnell got that personal hatred against, you know, Nikki and Sheng.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Okay.
ANDY DUONG: Yeah. Big time. Big time. So they trying to, you know, wrap it up. ‘Cause you know, Greg always supported Ignacio before. And, you know, Carl, he was, you know, with Loren and plus he never a fan of, you know, of Sheng and Nikki. So they always disrespecting on Nikki and Sheng.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Okay. You know, as long as they’re good and everything.
ANDY DUONG: I mean, yeah, right now be good. But they still got to do something. And, you know, umm, met up with, you know, with Nikki, too, and then with, uh, Sheng. I say — you know, and Jestin, he finally stopped by, uh, after all that time. I know that, you know, uh, Sheng is the one that leading him what to do. But they got to start taking action because Carol hit me up and she wanted to place, you know, couple of the units on her West Oakland to do all the press release, umm, you know, and regarding. ‘Cause she was pissed off how Sheng make the statement like, you know, uh, “Officer Tuan Le, this — this — you know, this death, this tragedy, cut us deep.” And then Carol was hella mad. Carol’s like, “Man, what — what — what the fuck about, you know, all these other women that lost their life? You didn’t say shit about it.”
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Yeah.
ANDY DUONG: You know, she was hella mad. So she’s like: “I’ma call out the mayor. I’ma call out city admin. We approve this, you know, $85 million funds back in — you know, before we went to recess break, and then she haven’t done shit. She haven’t bought unit from you guys, she haven’t done anything. I mean, this ridiculous.” So she wanted us to move one of the unit to the West Oakland so that way she can do all press release and call them out. But then I call Sheng. I say, “Aye, you got to get your shit together. Like, what the hell you doing? Like, I understand that, you know, sometime you want to hold that fund and maybe you’re cooking something else that you trying to see where you’re gonna spend the fund. But you want to — you know, you want to save your race or — or, you know, you know, you want to end it because you got to be straight. If you want to — you know, probably that you felt that there’s too much pressure for you, this ain’t right for you, then let us know. Then we will, you know, know what to do. But then if you really want to continue for another term, then you better start acting right.” So, uh, yeah, that’s when she called Jestin. And Jestin, you know, he showed up and, you know, he’s looking at understanding everything and we trying to — you know, this — this is a win-win, right? This is a win-win. This will help with, you know, getting people off the street and this is a good move and this will, you know, pretty much save their next election and the recall. So that’s where we left it at. And, you know, we’ll see where — where — where the city of Oakland goes. But other than that, everybody else, you know, is waiting to be on board. I mean, the county, other cities taking action right now, so. But we want Oakland to be the first ‘cause this is where, you know, the business is. Oakland need the most —
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Yeah.
ANDY DUONG: — help and we want to, you know, help out Oakland.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Yeah. Okay. So I might need your help. We’re gonna do a — we’re going to do a RV policy and get the RVs out of the way —
ANDY DUONG: Okay.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: — and everything. But you know, a lot of the activists are gonna come. But what we need is like the business owners saying like, yeah, this is killing our business with these RVs in front — front of your —
ANDY DUONG: Right, right. Okay. What — what is — in your district?
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Yeah, yeah, my district. The — they’re all over Oakland. RVs are just coming into Oakland.
ANDY DUONG: Oh, yeah, yeah. It’s — it is — it is killing our business big time. They’re just parking, you know, illegally on, you know, just curbside, anywhere. And, you know, just parking there. And sometime they move here and there, sometime they just leave it there as junk.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Yeah. It’s just junk.
ANDY DUONG: Yeah.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Okay.
ANDY DUONG: Yep. So just let me know. Let me know whenever you need help, bro. And then whenever you get a chance, just stop by and take a tour of the units at the office, Embarcadero, down- — downstair on Suite A.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Okay. Just shoot me some dates and I’ll come over.
ANDY DUONG: Okay. For sure. All right, bro.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCILMEMBER: All right. Appreciate you.
ANDY DUONG: All right, bro. All right. Stay safe and bless. Talk to you soon. All right, bye.
(End of transcription.)
Original transcript
Read the original full transcript from the public court docket. (Click image to download.)
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Hall, Alex. "Judge sets 2026 trial date in bribery case of former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao." KQED, Nov. 20, 2025. https://www.kqed.org/news/12064908/judge-sets-2026-trial-date-in-bribery-case-of-former-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao
Wolfe, Eli and Natalie Orenstein. "FBI informant already pleaded guilty in Sheng Thao corruption case." The Oaklandside, Jul. 27, 2026. https://oaklandside.org/2026/07/27/mario-juarez-guilty-plea-sheng-thao-fbi-oakland/
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Indefensible. It is unfathomable that some of these folks continue to have supporters today.
Because Oakland is currently at a critical juncture, this is one of the most important documents in Oakland history for it reveals how policies and actions are dictated.
Also, a reminder that Barbara Lee requested Oakland to not recall Sheng.
Outstanding journalism….. anyone smell a Pulitzer here?
For 60 years Oakland voters have elected corrupt and incompetent idiots to govern them. I guess that makes the citizens themselves - the idiots.