A former Oakland, California, mayor has been charged with bribery after she allegedly funneled city money to two local businesses in exchange for financial kickbacks and help with her campaign.

Sheng Thao, who won the mayoral election in November 2022, is accused of making the arrangement with Andy and David Duong. David Duong was the CEO of the recycling company Cal Waste Solutions, which had a contract with the city of Oakland. He and son Andy also co-founded a manufactured housing company.

While campaigning, Thao promised to use city funds to buy homes from the Duongs and extend the recycling company’s contract with the city, Department of Justice officials alleged in an indictment.

Prosecutors claim this was in exchange for a $75K mailer campaign targeting Thao’s political opponents and $95K worth of payments to her longtime romantic partner Andre Jones for a “no-show job” with the housing company.

Thao denied the charges via her attorney.

She won the election and took office in January 2023. Thao then allegedly appointed a high-level city official handpicked by the Duongs and requested that members of her staff meet with the businessmen.

The indictment outlines how Thao purportedly benefited from the payments to Jones. Before Jones began receiving the money, the former mayor paid the rent for their shared residence herself or split the payment with Jones. After the payments started, Jones allegedly began paying the entirety of their rent by himself, according to the indictment.

There were also steps taken to cover up the alleged scheme, the indictment says. Thao is accused of directing the Duongs to make the payments to Jones instead of her to avoid creating a paper trail. The businessmen also allegedly created false invoices at the recycling company to hide the bribe money.

The charges came after Thao was voted out in a recall election in November 2024, KQED reported.

Thao, Jones and the Duongs were indicted for bribery, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud earlier this month. Andy Duong was also charged with one count of lying to federal agents.

The former mayor's attorney, Jeff Tsai of DLA Piper, said Thao was innocent in a statement provided to Bisnow.

“The government’s indictment of Mayor Thao and its public-display search warrant execution of her personal residence succeeded in grabbing headlines, but these actions did not serve the ends of justice,” he said in the statement.

“There can be no reasonable debate that the government’s provocative investigative steps contributed materially to the outcome of last year’s recall election, yet the result is a feeble indictment that fails to establish a credible link between Mayor Thao and the scheme they have alleged against others. That is because Sheng is innocent of the charges, and she looks forward to her opportunity to defend herself against these meritless accusations.”