Barbara Lee to Return $5,000 in Donations From Family Linked to Oakland Bribery Scandal

Campaign finance records show former East Bay Rep. and Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations during her years in Congress from a family whose members stand accused in a federal indictment of bribing Oakland’s former mayor.

David Duong and his son, Andy Duong, were charged on Jan. 9 in an eight-count indictment with bribery, conspiracy and honest services mail and wire fraud in an alleged pay-to-play scheme between the Duongs, former Mayor Sheng Thao, who was recalled in last year’s election, and her boyfriend, Andre Jones.

David Duong is the CEO of California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s curbside recycling provider. The company has a contract with the city of Oakland through 2035.

Lee, who is running to be mayor of Oakland in an April 15 special election, served in Congress for more than 25 years before retiring and announcing her candidacy last month. A spokesperson for Lee, who opened her campaign headquarters in downtown Oakland on Saturday, said she planned to donate the most recent contributions from David Duong to Meals on Wheels.

“Barbara Lee has zero tolerance for any pay to play or special interest influence, has denounced these disturbing allegations, and has never been involved in any City vendor selection or contract issuance — and she fully supports strengthening City ethics practices,” Bilen Mesfin, a spokesperson for Lee’s mayoral campaign, told KQED Feb. 6. “As her final congressional term has reached its natural conclusion, her previous congressional accounts are now closed.”

Over the past two decades, the Duongs have been prolific donors to political campaigns and elected officials at the local, state and federal levels. Some politicians have returned those donations as an FBI investigation involving the Duongs has come into focus.

Federal campaign finance data show that since 1998, David Duong, Andy Duong and other members of the Duong family have contributed at least $66,250 to Lee. Most recently, David Duong contributed $5,000 to Lee’s unsuccessful run for Senate.

“As for the $5000 donated to her senate campaign in 2023, Barbara Lee is donating that to Meals on Wheels,” Mesfin said in a follow-up email on Feb. 7, hours before Lee’s campaign launch in downtown Oakland.

In a room full of supporters at her new campaign headquarters on Saturday, Lee spoke of regaining public trust.

“We’ve got to make sure that all of the issues around ethics and transparency, the gaps are closed in this city. Because we have to restore trust and confidence with our residents,” Lee said.

Campaign finance records released so far do not show Lee has received donations from the Duongs during her run for mayor, and the past donations themselves are not an indication of wrongdoing.

“I would say that the Duongs are long-standing donors to Lee, often giving at the maximum allowed,” said Brendan Glavin, director of insights at OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics.

Glavin reviewed campaign finance data for Barbara Lee’s political campaigns since 1998 at KQED’s request.

Federal election finance documents show that Lee’s congressional campaign committee was terminated as of November. However, a committee for Lee’s Senate run, which remains open, had $48,791.98 cash on hand and $91,035.13 in debts as of Dec. 31, according to the most recent data available.

Federal prosecutors allege that David and Andy Duong financed negative political mailers targeting Thao’s opponents in the 2022 mayoral election and that following the election, the Duongs and a person identified as “co-conspirator 1” paid $95,000 to Jones for a no-show job. The unnamed co-conspirator appears to be local businessman and political operative Mario Juarez.

In exchange, Thao allegedly promised to extend the Duongs’ recycling company’s contract with the city, give the Duongs and the co-conspirator influence over city appointments and use public money to purchase housing units from another company owned by the Duongs and the co-conspirator, according to the indictment.

In a post on social media platform X on Thursday, former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor, one of Lee’s opponents in the mayor’s race, said the scandal had caused the public to lose trust in Oakland city government and pressed Lee to return the donations.

“I’m calling on all East Bay officials — including my opponent in the upcoming special election, Former Congresswoman Barbara Lee — who have received money from the Duong family to donate those funds to charity,” Taylor said. “We must demonstrate to residents that we have learned from these events and that the public can trust us to lead Oakland during the difficult time that lies ahead.”

According to campaign finance records, the Duongs have donated to politicians at almost every level of government for years.

State campaign finance data show members of the family have contributed often to big-name Democrats like Rob and Mia Bonta, Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris, while David Duong has donated to both Democrats and Republicans at the federal level, including $250,000 to a committee called Trump Victory in 2020.

In 2021, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission produced a report in support of a finding of probable cause alleging that Andy Duong, between at least 2016 and 2018, orchestrated an elaborate campaign contribution laundering scheme for the benefit of California Waste Solutions.

The report describes how Duong allegedly sought out people to write campaign contribution checks and then reimbursed them with cash to bypass campaign donation limits while CWS had ongoing business with Oakland.

According to the report, Duong allegedly provided committees and candidates with checks at campaign fundraisers.

“While Duong and CWS concealed the true source of the contributions, Duong ensured the targeted candidates were aware of his commitment to raise money for their campaign by attending candidate fundraisers, bringing individuals to campaign fundraisers, and at times hosting campaign fundraisers,” the report reads.

The case is still open and under investigation, a spokesperson for FPPC said.

It was opened as a joint investigation with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, which the FBI credited at a January press conference for the initial information that led to the agency’s multiyear investigation of Thao, Jones and the Duongs.

Last year, after the FBI raided Thao’s home and three addresses associated with the Duongs and their business, several elected officials returned donations they received from the Duongs, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Bonta returned $155,100 “out of an abundance of caution,” according to then-spokesperson Nathan Click.

South Bay Congressman Ro Khanna donated $5,800 in contributions from the Duongs to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action, Maitri and Community Seva, a spokesperson for the congressman said.

A spokesperson for then-Senate candidate Adam Schiff’s campaign told the San José Spotlight last year that “following public news reports, the campaign will be giving $26,000 — the total contributions received from Mr. Duong and his family — to a local nonprofit helping address housing and homelessness.”

KQED’s review of campaign finance records at the city, state and federal level did not uncover documentation of other candidates in the current Oakland mayors’ race receiving donations from the Duongs in the past.

“I would say that almost anyone else in local politics who wants to reassure their constituents that they are clean and above board should consider doing the same thing,” said Dan Schnur, professor of political communication at USC and UC Berkeley and the former chair of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission. “It sounds like the Lee campaign decided that avoiding unnecessary bad publicity is more valuable than the $5,000. That is a wise decision.”

Numerous photos posted to Andy Duong’s Instagram account show him posing with major Democratic politicians at the state and federal level, including Hillary Clinton, Rob Bonta, Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Both Taylor and Lee also appear in photos posted to the account. In a Jan. 7, 2019 post, Thao, Taylor and former Oakland City Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas, now an Alameda County supervisor, appear in selfies with Andy Duong.

“That was when the three of us — Nikki Bas, myself and Sheng Thao — were inaugurated. That was when we were first sworn into office as new council members,” Taylor said. “So there was a lot of photos being taken with a lot of people that I didn’t know.”

Taylor said that after Bonta returned donations from the Duongs, his staff reviewed their campaign financial records.

“As far as I know, I have never received any financial contributions from the Duong family,” Taylor said.

A spokesperson for Lee’s campaign did not respond to questions about the extent and nature of her relationship with members of the Duong family.

In a June 24, 2017 photo, Andy Duong appears next to Lee at her home.

Six days later, campaign finance records show, he contributed $2,700 to Lee’s reelection campaign.