Alameda County DA filing calls Mario Juarez a 'conduit' for Duong family money
New documents accuse Mario Juarez of being a "conduit" for Duong family payments to gain Mayor Sheng Thaos favor
The Alameda County District Attorney's office said in a court filing Monday that Mario Juarez had failed to pay bills for Thao campaign flyers, and an investigation into Juarez's bank account showed a connection to the Duong family whose properties had also been raided with Thao's home by the FBI in June.
OAKLAND, Calif. - The Alameda County District Attorney's office filed new documents accusing political operative Mario Juarez of bouncing checks and failing to pay for Sheng Thao's mayoral campaign attack flyers in 2022, as well as alleging that Juarez was a "conduit" to receive large sums of money from the Duong family, whose company has held contracts with the City of Oakland.
"The defendant was essentially a conduit for these companies to help the mayor win and preserve and enhance these companies’ access to taxpayer-funded contracts," the DA's document states.
The East Bay Times first reported this development.
The FBI raided Thao's home as well as three other sites linked to the Duong family in June 2024.
The Duong family operates a business, California Waste Solutions, which contracts with the City of Oakland, and they have been prominent political donors in the city.
Prosecutors filed the documents Monday in response to Juarez's October 2024 request to dismiss the criminal case that charges Juarez with a felony for "insufficient funds."
Prosecutors accuse Juarez of failing to pay a marketing company, Butterfly Direct Marketing, and its owner Samari Johnson the full $84,763 owed for mailing attack flyers in October in support of Thao''s campaign.
According to the DA office's filing, Juarez wrote checks that bounced after he diverted funds from his business checking account to a "high school checking account" shared with his daughter.
Prosecutors say investigators looked into Juarez's business bank account, and found that he received payments from the Duong family and their business, Central Waste Management Solutions.
Prosecutors allege that Juarez received $125,000 from ABC Security and the Duong family's Central Waste Management Solutions between Oct. 17, 2022, and Oct. 20, 2022.
Then, prosecutors say, after the November 8, 2022, election, Juarez received $170,000 from ABC security, the Duong family, and their business, Central Waste Management Solutions.
The DA's filing also accuses Juarez of a $7,500 transfer to Andre Jones, Sheng Thao's partner, but did not specify the purpose.
The new details raise questions about whether those are some of the connections that the FBI might be investigating between the parties who were subject to the raids last June.
"I think the more we learn about the characters involved in this case, all of them seem a little compromised, so it's going to take quite a bit to unfurl and see what's true," said Justin Berton, former Oakland Mayor Schaaf staff.
Meantime, Mario Juarez is accusing former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price of "vindictive prosecution" because he didn't donate to Price's campaign.
Juarez's attorney in October filed a motion to dismiss a "Vindictive Prosecution (Sic) And Outrageous Government Conduct."
That filing accuses Price of also asking the Duong family for contributions.
The DA's filing calls the accusations "ridiculous."
Oakland residents say they hope the FBI will offer some explanations and clarity soon.
"Oakland residents haven't heard anything since the FBI raided Mayor Thao's house and I think people are getting a little bit fed up. They want to know why the FBI was there. They want to know the truth of the story and they want to get to the bottom of whether there was political corruption inside Oakland City Hall?" Berton said.