Sheng Thao Corruption Case: Judge Confirms Identity of Key FBI Informant

A federal judge in Oakland has publicly revealed the identity of a key FBI informant in the corruption case against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao: Mario Juarez, a longtime Oakland businessman and former city council candidate.

Juarez is named in an order issued Tuesday, denying several motions to suppress evidence in the case. The motions had questioned Juarez’s credibility as an informant and the FBI’s reliance on his statements to secure search warrants.

According to court records, Juarez began working with the FBI in 2024, mere weeks before agents conducted highly publicized raids on Thao and the other defendants’ homes.

While his presence has loomed large in the case, he had yet to be publicly identified.

Thao was charged with bribery, conspiracy and fraud in an eight-count indictment in January last year. Her longtime partner, Andre Jones, and father and son recycling executives David and Andy Duong, were also charged.

The Duongs own California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s current curbside recycling contractor.

The indictment alleges a pay-to-play scheme in which the Duongs made payments to Jones through a no-show job and financed political mailers attacking Thao’s opponents in the 2022 mayoral race. In exchange, Thao promised to extend the Duongs’ recycling contract and commit the city to purchasing shipping containers converted into housing for the homeless from a company the Duongs co-owned, according to federal prosecutors.

The indictment also describes a fifth person who was allegedly involved in the scheme but has not been charged. That individual, now confirmed to be Juarez, is identified in the indictment as “CO-CONSPIRATOR 1.”

The motions, filed by Thao and the other defendants, had accused the FBI of failing to leave out key information about Juarez’s past in affidavits used to secure search warrants of their homes, vehicles and businesses.

In their motions, the defendants alleged the FBI failed to disclose that Juarez has a decades-long track record of defrauding business partners and what they described as a “documented counter-attack history” of alleging misconduct by others in response to accusations and lawsuits lodged against him.

“A simple search of Co-Conspirator 1’s name through the Alameda County Superior Court records reveals that he has been sued approximately 33 times between 1992 and 2022, including numerous fraud cases involving former business partners,” one motion reads.

Juarez, they alleged, was continuing that pattern in this case. They requested an evidentiary hearing where they could question the FBI agents who wrote the affidavits.

Prosecutors had pushed back on that argument, saying they had amassed significant documentary evidence of the alleged corruption scheme well before interviewing Juarez, and that his statements were included merely for “context and completeness.”

In her order, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied the defendants’ request.

“Defendants present no credible evidence that the government intended to deceive or acted with reckless disregard,” she wrote. “The motion is deniable on this basis alone.”

One warrant, she wrote, included “significant documentary evidence tying David Duong, Andy Duong, Thao, Jones, and Juarez to the alleged corruption scheme, including messages and notes from Juarez’s iCloud account, financial records showing the allegedly corrupt payments, phone records showing significant communication regarding those payments, and other documentary evidence relating to the scheme.”

Attorneys for Thao, Jones and David and Andy Duong either declined to comment on the order or did not return KQED’s calls requesting comment.

Juarez also did not respond to a text message requesting comment.