
<p>The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the home of Mayor Sheng Thao, the Democrat mayor of Oakland (California), on Thursday. The raid, reportedly related to accusations of campaign finance violations, comes a few weeks after a campaign to recall Mayor Thao declared it had acquired enough signatures to set the recall process in motion.</p>



<p>KRON4 News reported that the FBI showed up at Mayor Thao’s Oakland home at 5:30 in the morning. The mayor’s boyfriend opened the door for the federal agents. The channel reported:</p>



<p><em>At approximately 10:07 a.m., several FBI agents could be seen walking out of the property carrying bags and boxes.</em></p>



<p>The channel cited an unnamed law enforcement source telling them that the raid was related to alleged campaign finance violations. No further details were provided by the FBI but the story made national headlines, leaving audiences to wonder what really was going on with the Mayor Thao who has been facing protests and demands by Oakland citizens to resign over her failure to control rampant violence and crime in the city.</p>



<p>Earlier this month KRON4 News reported that a campaign, called Oakland United to Recall Sheng Thao (OUST), announced collecting more than 40,000 signatures against the required 25 thousand needed to set a recall process in motion. The recall campaign declared Thao an “incompetent and dishonest mayor.”</p>



<p>But the recent FBI raid seemingly traverses quite a few dots related to money laundering and date back to at least 2016 when a number of suspicious political contributions were made for the next several years to a number of public office holders. As reported in <em>The Oaklandside</em> in 2020, Sheng Thao, who was a councilwoman back then, was one of the five councilmembers who accepted some of the allegedly laundered money. That inquiry apparently went nowhere.</p>



<p>Thao was elected Oakland’s mayor in 2022 and the law enforcement source’s statement to KRON4 News implies that the FBI raid is likely related to her mayoral campaign finance violations. The channel along with other media also noted that three other properties were also raided by the FBI seemingly in connection with Mayor Thao’s home raid. The three properties all belong to the well-connected Duong family, owner of California Waste Solutions. Author and analyst Steven Tavares highlighted the connection in an X (Twitter) post:</p>



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, the apparent subject of a FBI raid this morning, went on a junket last year to Vietnam that was paid for by a group led by Andy Duong of California Waste Solutions, the city’s garbage vendor. Duong’s home was also raided this morning.</p>&mdash; Steven Tavares (@eastbaycitizen) <a href="https://twitter.com/eastbaycitizen/status/1803839695610081692?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 20, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p>In a later tweet, Travers made another connection relevant to the story – one between the Duong family and Rob Bonta, the current Attorney General (AG) of California:</p>



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just to show how big this FBI raid story could be, the Doung family, owners of California Waste Solutions, also raided this morning, have strong ties to AG Rob Bonta.</p>&mdash; Steven Tavares (@eastbaycitizen) <a href="https://twitter.com/eastbaycitizen/status/1803895446995374140?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 20, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p><br><br><br><br><br><br><p class="MsoNormal">Travers then quickly added a clarification: “I didn’t mean to implicate Bonta into anything here. Only that the Duongs have strong ties to many high level officials in Alameda County and whatever we learn about the raids could be wide ranging.”</p></p>



<p><p class="MsoNormal">Independent media organization Bay Area State of Mind posted via its X (Twitter) account that the FBI raid of Mayor Thao is part of a public corruption investigation that also involves her boyfriend.</p></p>



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: FBI raids home of Oakland, California Mayor Sheng Thao in a “public corruption investigation” involving her and her boyfriend <a href="https://t.co/UsVRvnwVUV">pic.twitter.com/UsVRvnwVUV</a></p>&mdash; BAY AREA STATE OF MIND (@YayAreaNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/YayAreaNews/status/1803842297488118094?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 20, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p>Until the time of this writing, Mayor Thao has not been seen or heard from since the raid and no media reported receiving any comment from her office.</p>

FBI Raids the Home of Oakland’s Democrat Mayor
