Former San Leandro City Councilmember Pleads Guilty in Federal Bribery Case

Former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty Wednesday to agreeing to accept money in exchange for using his position as an elected official to advocate on behalf of a housing company tied to the FBI’s investigation of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and lying to federal agents when questioned about it.

Azevedo’s guilty plea follows months of speculation over whether he had worked out a deal to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against Thao and comes a day after he formally resigned from his official duties as a San Leandro City Councilmember.

Azevedo appeared in a downtown Oakland courtroom alongside his attorney and listened as U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers explained the rights he gives up by pleading guilty to both federal charges against him.

While a final sentence has yet to be determined, the maximum penalty for each of those charges is up to 20 and five years, respectively, Gonzalez Rogers explained.

“I understand you’re cooperating with the government,” she said. “And we’ll get to that.”

Azevedo and his attorney declined reporters’ requests for comment as they left the courthouse.

City officials said Monday they had received a formal letter of retirement from Azevedo, effective Tuesday at 9 a.m.

“I’ve decided to retire from the City Council to focus on my family and deal with my legal issues,” Azevedo wrote in the email to San Leandro’s acting city clerk Sunday.

In a video statement released shortly after Wednesday’s hearing, San Leandro Mayor Juan González reassured the city’s residents, describing trust between voters and elected officials as the foundation for democracy.

“Today’s admission by Councilmember Azevedo represents a violation of that trust,” he said, adding, “Our city’s integrity is not negotiable.”

Azevedo was charged in late October with one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and one count of making false statements to a government agency. Honest services fraud is a crime that involves an elected official’s acceptance of a bribe or kickback in exchange for official action.

Prosecutors allege Azevedo agreed to secure a contract for a housing company in exchange for his own financial gain. They said he opened an LLC in his wife’s name and established a bank account for receiving bribery payments.

When questioned by federal agents, he lied, they allege.

Azevedo pleaded not guilty to the charges at a Nov. 12 arraignment. A court filing about a week earlier had hinted that prosecutors were close to reaching a deal with Azevedo at that time, or already had.

“The government and Azevedo are close to reaching a resolution of his case and do not expect contested pretrial litigation or a trial,” the filing reads. “There are unlikely to be further substantive hearings until a potential change of plea or sentencing hearing.”

Azevedo’s case is officially related to that of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and three others charged in a January 2025 indictment alleging a bribery scheme, meaning all of the defendants will appear before the same judge. Also indicted in that case were Thao’s partner, Andre Jones, and father and son businessmen David and Andy Duong, whose family owns Oakland’s recycling contractor, California Waste Solutions.

In an Oct. 28 filing, U.S. attorneys described a conspiracy in which Azevedo agreed to accept a bribe following his participation in a trip during the summer of 2023 to Vietnam sponsored by an unnamed business association. The business association allegedly paid Azevedo’s expenses, including business class airfare, accommodation and meals, for around 10 days.

After the trip, the filing reads, Azevedo met with two unnamed individuals and allegedly agreed to use his power as a councilmember to help obtain a city contract for a housing company in exchange for a percentage of the sales price from whatever units the city of San Leandro ultimately purchased from the company.

Prosecutors allege that in or around September 2023, Azevedo created an LLC in his wife’s name and arranged for a bank account to be opened for the purpose of receiving bribes and kickback payments from the two individuals.

Assistant. U.S. Attorney Abraham Fine said in court on Wednesday that one of the individuals, who he identified as “co-conspirator 1,” had said he had “done this with other politicians.”

At a November dinner in Alameda, one of the individuals allegedly gave Azevedo $2,000 in cash. He deposited the money into the recently opened bank account, prosecutors say.

The filing alleges Azevedo advocated for an emergency homelessness ordinance that would have benefitted the housing company, and later voted in favor of it. The city council ultimately voted to take no action on the ordinance.

The filing also alleges Azevedo took members of San Leandro’s government to tour its model units and advocated for the city purchasing those units.

And, it describes a one-hour interview during which prosecutors say Azevedo lied to federal agents in response to questions about whether he received cash payments and whether the family of one of the unnamed individuals had business interests before the city.

A lawsuit filed last year by former San Leandro City Manager Frances Robustelli alleges Azevedo and San Leandro Councilmember Victor Aguilar invited her to the Oakland waterfront showroom of Evolutionary Homes, a company that was co-owned by members of the Duong family at that time.

David and Andy Duong were indicted last year on bribery, conspiracy and fraud charges in an alleged pay-to-play scheme that federal investigators say involved Evolutionary Homes. Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her longtime romantic partner, Andre Jones, were also charged. All four have pleaded not guilty. A trial is scheduled to begin in October.

David Duong also leads the Vietnamese American Business Association, which sponsored a 2023 trip to Vietnam that Thao and Azevedo both attended.

Azevedo was elected to the San Leandro City Council in 2020 and reelected in 2024. He is a sheet metal worker foreman, according to the city’s website.

San Leandro Mayor Juan Gonzalez told reporters shortly after the charges against Azevedo became public that he was not asking Azevedo to step down.

If, however, Azevedo were to be convicted of a felony, he said, the city’s charter would not allow him to continue serving on the city council.

Had Azevedo not resigned Tuesday, he would have been immediately suspended from his job following his guilty plea, according to California law.