OAKLAND — Among the many many allegations of corruption in indictments filed Friday towards ex-Mayor Sheng Thao is the notion she was bribed to affect the appointment of a metropolis official who may assist safe funding for Thao’s alleged co-conspirators.
Federal prosecutors don’t accuse the official, who isn’t recognized within the indictment paperwork, of being knowingly concerned in an alleged scheme by the previous mayor and her accomplices to commerce political favors for assured entry to profitable metropolis contracts.
However paperwork point out that the official — who’s recognized by metropolis information and a supply with direct information as metropolis staffer Larry Gallegos — was put in in his place by the conspirators within the sprawling bribery plot outlined in Friday’s charging paperwork.
Thao, who was recalled by voters final November, has pleaded not responsible, alongside together with her romantic accomplice Andre Jones and father-son enterprise duo David and Andy Duong, who personal a longtime household recycling firm contracted by the town of Oakland.
An unnamed co-conspirator has not been charged or named in paperwork, however all particulars listed in regards to the particular person line up neatly with what’s publicly identified about Mario Juarez, a neighborhood politico who had a violent falling-out with the Duongs not lengthy earlier than the FBI probe first got here to mild.
The indictments laid out a wide-ranging investigation of felony corruption in Oakland. The bribery expenses focus on a pay-to-play scheme that started forward of the 2022 election and continued after Thao grew to become the town’s mayor in January 2023.
Gallegos’ appointment to a high-level housing place is just one allegation within the indictments, however it displays a key part of the alleged conspiracy: to fill main metropolis workers roles with individuals who may favor Thao’s marketing campaign backers for heavy public funding. The dialogue included appointments to the Port of Oakland fee and metropolis public works, constructing and permits, housing and metropolis administrator’s workplace.
Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her lawyer Jeff Tsai go away the Federal Constructing after showing on the Federal Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., for her indictment on bribery and conspiracy expenses by federal prosecutors on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. Additionally, her boyfriend, Andre Jones, California Waste Options homeowners, Andy Duong, and his father, David Duong, have been indicted. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
Gallegos has been a metropolis worker since lengthy earlier than Thao grew to become mayor — in actual fact, a web-based biography signifies it was his first job after graduating UC Berkeley a long time in the past.
Instantly earlier than and after his stint within the position that drew the curiosity of federal prosecutors, Gallegos labored as a program supervisor within the metropolis’s Financial and Workforce Growth Division, the place he helped oversee the sale of the Raiders coaching facility in Alameda.
However for a quick interval beginning in March 2023, he was appointed because the Housing and Neighborhood Growth Division’s interim deputy director, a place he obtained after allegedly assembly with the Duongs and an unnamed co-conspirator for lunch a month prior.
“I wanted him because while at the City he make [sic] sure my projects got done and grants were given to me,” the co-conspirator texted Andy Duong on Feb. 6, 2023, in response to the charging paperwork. Jones can be accused of being concerned within the discussions.
In the end, Thao “took active steps to advocate for and ultimately influence City Employee 1’s appointment to a high-level position within the City of Oakland,” the paperwork state, utilizing a descriptor that refers to Gallegos with out naming him.
The appointment to the housing place was imagined to be made by the town administrator, who stated he “did not believe the experience of City Employee 1 qualified that person for a director-level position,” prosecutors stated. However Gallegos was appointed anyway.
California Waste Options co-owner Andy Duong, center, walks off the Federal Constructing after showing on the Federal Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., for his indictment on bribery and conspiracy expenses by federal prosecutors on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. Additionally, his father, David Duong, former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, and her boyfriend, Andre Jones, have been indicted. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
Steven Falk, the interim metropolis administrator on the time, couldn’t be reached for remark. Gallegos didn’t reply to an interview request, whereas Thao, Jones and the Duongs declared their innocence on Friday.
Inside a pair months of his appointment, information point out Gallegos started corresponding with representatives for Evolutionary Properties, a housing firm based by the Duongs and Juarez that the feds say was central to the alleged bribery scheme.
Juarez and different representatives for Evolutionary Properties sought Gallegos’ assist to faucet public funds for the development of shipping-container properties — the supposed enterprise mannequin of an organization that by no means absolutely acquired off the bottom.
An preliminary plan between Thao and the Duongs known as for the mayor’s romantic accomplice, Andre Jones, to obtain $300,000 for a “no-show” job with the Duongs’ firm, Evolutionary Properties, the indictment claimed.
But in a March 2023 assembly, Thao requested for her accomplice to obtain 10 instances as a lot cash — $3 million — in trade for the town buying 100 of the Duongs’ housing items. She proposed enduring the acquisition by utilizing the town’s emergency powers, which might permit the deal to undergo with no aggressive bidding course of.
No deal ever got here out of the talks. Evolutionary Properties by no means utilized for a metropolis contract.
In the meantime, in the course of the summer time of 2023, Gallegos was amongst a small variety of metropolis staffers tapped to affix Thao and some dozen others on a commerce delegation to Vietnam. The ten-day tour largely concerned lengthy conferences and pre-planned lunches with overseas officers, in response to the itinerary.
Like most others who attended, Gallegos’ journey prices and different bills have been lined by the Vietnamese American Enterprise Affiliation — a bunch led by the Duongs.
