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The Sheng Thao Files are LIVE!
Sheng Thao did not rise from poverty and homelessness to the mayor’s office through grit or resilience. She was purchased.
From her first City Council campaign in 2018 the Duong family used an illegal straw donor network to launder money into her races. By the 2022 mayoral election they went further. They spent seventy five thousand dollars on negative mailers that flipped a razor thin contest decided by only six hundred eighty two votes. They also set up a no show job for her partner Andre Jones that paid him at least ninety five thousand dollars with clear promises of up to three hundred thousand total.
The deal was straightforward. In exchange for the cash Thao agreed to protect the Duongs waste monopoly, steer city contracts to their new shipping container housing company, and put their chosen people into senior positions inside City Hall. She started delivering on every part of that agreement the moment she took office.
Oakland paid the price while she collected. She fired the police chief and then blocked every qualified replacement for nearly a year during a violent crime wave. Auto thefts jumped forty four percent. Property crime rates placed Oakland in the top one percent of cities nationwide. Her administration even missed a guaranteed fifteen point six million dollar state grant to fight retail theft. The city auditor called it a total failure of leadership and basic organization.
Businesses fled. The Athletics left. The city’s credit rating was downgraded. In November twenty twenty four voters ended it. Sixty point six percent recalled her, the first time in Oakland history that a sitting mayor was removed by the people.
Two months later she was indicted on eight federal counts of bribery, conspiracy, and honest services fraud. She faces up to thirty five years in prison.
Oakland, CA 🇺🇸 English
