‘I Know What They Do’: 911 Calls Were Key Turning Point in Oakland Corruption Investigation
Two 911 calls from May 2024 furthered the FBI’s investigation into alleged public corruption that’s now the subject of a federal trial involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.
Police dispatch call logs, obtained through a public records request, show Mario Juarez’s calls for assistance following an alleged assault at California Waste Solutions’ offices on May 3, 2024. They have been altered to redact his home address and highlight a call on May 4, 2024, when the dispatcher notes he requested a sergeant because, he alleged, the company’s owners were influential among patrol officers. (Courtesy of Oakland Police Department)
Two 911 calls in May 2024 tipped off federal agents to a key development in an ongoing public corruption investigation that has since become the subject of a major federal criminal trial involving Oakland’s former mayor, Sheng Thao.
Mario Juarez, a businessman and political operative, called police twice — on May 3, 2024, and again the following day — to report he had been assaulted at the Oakland waterfront offices of California Waste Solutions, the city’s recycling contractor.
A group of 10 men had beaten him up, he said, and the owners of the company brought those men together.
“It involves a crime of, high crime of racketeering and organized crime,” he said. “And it may involve police officers.”
KQED obtained those calls through a public records request.
Last week in a federal courtroom in Oakland, FBI Special Agent Katherine Barclay said Juarez’s allegations against both the Duongs and police prompted the agency to contact him, setting in motion a series of events that would ultimately lead to the indictment of Thao and three others.
Thao, her longtime partner Andre Jones, and David and Andy Duong, whose family owns California Waste Solutions, are facing charges of bribery, conspiracy and honest services mail and wire fraud in a federal corruption trial that kicked off this month.
Prosecutors have described a pay-to-play scheme involving promises of preferential treatment for the Duongs’ businesses, a no-show job and negative campaign mailers.
All four defendants have pleaded not guilty.
In her testimony, Barclay said the FBI had been investigating a potential bribery scheme involving Juarez and the defendants for months when, in May 2024, the agency received information that was significant to its investigation.
“[Oakland police] brought information to our attention that Juarez had made allegations against the Duong family and [the department] itself,” Barclay said. “Because of some of the allegations about OPD, they brought it to our attention.”
Once the FBI received that information, Barclay said, agents approached Juarez for an interview.
“It was apparent that he was making allegations of corruption relating to the Duong family,” she said.
Barclay said agents were concerned that if that information got back to the Duongs, they might take steps to destroy evidence.
Juarez sat down for his first interview with the FBI about a month after he called 911 to report the alleged assault and has since become a cooperating witness in the federal corruption case. He has pleaded guilty to participating in the alleged scheme.
In July 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office subpoenaed the city of Oakland, requesting internal Oakland Police Department phone number directories and lists from March to July that year.
It also requested any police reports made by or involving members of the Duong family, including Andy Duong, David Duong, Kristina Duong and Johnny Duong, from April to July.
Asked about the 911 calls, a spokesperson for the Oakland Police Department said department personnel brought the allegations to the FBI and investigated the matters that fell within its own administrative authority.
The spokesperson declined to say what happened as a result of the investigation, or if any OPD personnel were charged or disciplined, citing a state law prohibiting the disclosure of most police personnel records.
“The Oakland Police Department takes allegations of misconduct by its members seriously,” the spokesperson said. “The department shared the information with the FBI, has cooperated with federal authorities since then, and continues to do so.”
The spokesperson said, “Because Mr. Juarez is a witness in an ongoing federal criminal trial, the department will not comment on the substance of his statements.”
FBI spokesperson Cameron Polan said the agency cannot comment on the case at this time. Neither the U.S. Attorney’s Office nor the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office responded to KQED’s questions about the calls or whether any officers have been charged.
Defense attorneys have called into question Juarez’s credibility and what they’ve described as his “decades-long history” of fraud.
In court records filed in the lead-up to the trial, defense attorneys said Juarez had been sued approximately 33 times between 1992 and 2022, including numerous fraud cases involving former business partners.
They described a documented “counter-attack” history, including instances in which they say Juarez alleged misconduct by others in response to accusations or lawsuits lodged against him. Juarez, they said, “has repeatedly falsely accused business partners of crimes and other wrongdoing in efforts to escape liability for his own actions.”
An attorney for Andy Duong declined to comment on Juarez’s allegations in the 911 calls. Lawyers for David Duong and Doug Straus with Buchalter Law Firm, an attorney for California Waste Solutions, did not respond to KQED’s requests for comment.
‘For your records when you get subpoenaed’
The day that Juarez called 911 marked a breaking point in his yearslong relationship with the Duongs.
In the fall of 2022, Juarez and the Duongs had gone into business together on Evolutionary Homes — a company that aimed to convert shipping containers into housing for people exiting homelessness and market them to Bay Area cities and counties looking to address the crisis.
Prosecutors allege that Thao agreed to commit the city of Oakland to purchasing housing units from Evolutionary Homes, in addition to other favors, as part of the alleged bribery scheme.
But in the spring of 2024, prosecutors say the relationship between the Duongs and Juarez began to deteriorate.
That year, Andy Duong told an Alameda County District Attorney’s Office inspector that he and his father had invested $800,000 into a business venture with Juarez but ultimately fell victim to what they considered to be theft of their investment.
Juarez, they said, was supposed to deliver 50 container homes but had only produced two of them.
“Over the course of their involvement with him, Juarez continued to ask for more and more money for the project without being able to provide them receipts, etc.,” a July 2024 search warrant affidavit read, continuing, “the Duongs, now allegedly into the project for slightly over $1,000,000, decided to walk away from doing business with Juarez.”
“When asked why deliveries were not being made, Juarez would make excuses about being close, or that worker or material costs [were] slowing things down,” Andy Duong told the inspector.
In a court filing, prosecutors say Juarez became frustrated by the Duongs not reimbursing him for what he said he had already spent.
By late April, the tension in their relationship reached a breaking point. Juarez, prosecutors say, asked to dissolve the partnership, and the Duongs threatened legal action based on loans they had given Juarez.
In response, they say, Juarez threatened to go to law enforcement.
In an email on April 24, 2024, to David Duong, Andy Duong and others, Juarez said he was writing “for your records when you get subpoenaed by the FBI, City Attorneys, FPPC, and others,” the filing read.
‘I want my money’
Juarez and the Duongs disagree about what happened next.
According to prosecutors, on May 3, 2024, Juarez arrived at the Evolutionary Homes office and discovered he had been locked out.
In an audio recording of the confrontation that followed, which was admitted as evidence in the trial on Friday, Juarez can be heard saying, “I want my money,” to which David Duong responded, “We want our $800,000 back.”
Juarez can be heard insisting that he needs to get inside the office, while other people, including David Duong, offer to help get his stuff out.
The “business is gone,” David Duong can be heard saying.
“Have you closed the business?” Juarez asks. “Yeah,” David Duong responded.
Asst. U.S. Attorney Abraham Fine told the jury in the government’s opening statement that Andy Duong recorded the exchange.
“When Juarez refused to leave, Duong turned off the recorder,” Fine said. “Some people showed up and beat up Juarez. They beat him, punched him.”
And, Fine said, they took a watch and chain that Juarez “had worn for years.”
That same day, Juarez called 911.
“I am reporting a felony assault,” he said.
Mario Juarez's Second Call to Oakland Police, Edited to Redact Juarez's Home Address
“They assaulted me this afternoon, and I just got home,” he told the dispatcher. “It was about ten people.”
Juarez said that the assault was “organized by Johnny Duong,” David Duong’s son and California Waste Solutions’ chief operating officer. Johnny Duong declined to comment on the allegations. A review of Alameda County and federal court records by KQED found no criminal charges against Johnny Duong related to the alleged assault.
The next day, when officers apparently still hadn’t responded, Juarez called 911 again.
“Ma’am, I need to report a crime that I was a victim of,” Juarez said, explaining that he had just woken up from a beating the day before.
“I got stomped in the head by ten people that were sent together by the owners of California Waste Solutions, which is the city of Oakland waste management contract,” he said.
Juarez asked for a sergeant to respond, because the owners of the company “have tremendous influence with the police, with patrol officers,” he said.
The dispatcher asked Juarez for the name of the company again.
Juarez reiterated, “California Waste Solutions.”
“Because I know them,” Juarez said. “I know what they do. I know how they racketeer. I know how they launder money.”
“I know how they donate drones to the police department,” Juarez said. “I know how they have police officers right now in their offices during their break, right now, today, right now. You have a patrol at 1211 Embarcadero on the third floor and saying that he’s at Starbucks. Do you see? Do you not have a patrol officer at 1211 Embarcadero?”
“I’m just trying to give you an idea of something that is so powerful that perhaps, you know …” he trailed off.
KQED has not substantiated Juarez’s allegations against Oakland police.
Andy Duong told the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office inspector a different account of the events that day.
In his version, Juarez showed up at California Waste Solutions on May 3, 2024, and confronted him and his father, claiming they still owed him money he needed to pay his workers in Mexico, where the company was purportedly building homes out of shipping containers.
According to the search warrant affidavit authored by the inspector, Andy Duong alleged Juarez “held them for hours demanding money.”
“They feared for their safety because he is known to carry weapons,” the affidavit read. “Juarez ultimately left without receiving any further money from the Duongs.”
Prosecutors on Friday showed a photo taken that day outside California Waste Solutions’ office, which was seized from Andy Duong’s phone. In the photo, Juarez can be seen sitting on the ground covered with a blanket while several people stand around him. An ambulance and stretcher are parked nearby.
Winston Chan, one of Andy Duong’s attorneys, told jurors in his opening statement that Juarez showed up that day agitated and armed with a gun.
Chan said someone outside the Duong family punched Juarez in the face.
“What happened was, yes, an altercation,” Chan said.
“I’m not going to say that afternoon was handled well,” he said. “But this was the farthest thing from a preplanned ambush.”
Court records show an Oakland police officer is expected to testify about his interactions with Andy Duong, David Duong and his sister Kristina Duong, chief financial officer at California Waste Solutions, on the day Juarez placed the second 911 call, as well as a police report he authored documenting the Duongs’ descriptions of the confrontation.
In a recent court filing, prosecutors said surveillance footage from the recycling company’s headquarters on May 3, 2024, doesn’t exist.
Juarez previously told the FBI he had seen members of the Duong family delete footage from the security system.
“Evidence that Juarez previously observed the deletion of footage from the surveillance system therefore is relevant to the jury’s assessment of why no corresponding footage exists for May 3, 2024,” the filing read.
When Juarez went to the police, it marked the first time he talked to law enforcement about the Duongs, Fine said.
About a month later, on June 6, 2024, Juarez sat down with the FBI for an interview.
Two weeks after that, the FBI executed search warrants at Thao, Jones and David and Andy Duong’s homes.
During the search of Andy Duong’s residence, Fine said agents discovered a watch and chain that Juarez identified as items stolen from him during the altercation with the Duongs. They were in a paper bag, Fine said, inside Andy Duong’s garage.