Far-left Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s political career was thrown into turmoil Thursday as FBI agents descended on her home and multiple other properties across the city, as part of a federal investigation into alleged campaign finance violations and corruption.
A rising star in California’s Democratic Party, the raid on Thao’s house came as no surprise. She has been under investigation for corruption and money laundering since 2020, according to local newspaper Oaklandside.
Still, the pre-dawn FBI raids represented a dramatic escalation into the longstanding allegations surrounding Thao and ties to a local recycling company under scrutiny for potentially illicit political donations.
A neighbor reported federal agents banging on Thao’s door at 6 a.m. on Thursday before the FBI escorted the embattled Democratic mayor from her residence hours later. She subsequently missed a scheduled public event as news of the FBI’s action reverberated across the Bay Area.
“The FBI conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity on Maiden Lane in Oakland this morning,” an agency spokesperson confirmed, while providing no additional details citing the ongoing investigation.
The local chapter of the NAACP, a Democrat-aligned non-profit, immediately called for Thao to resign.
“The City of Oakland has a cloud hanging over it today. The world watched as Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home was raided by the FBI. While the public should refrain from a rush to judgment, the leadership of the NAACP and its members are calling on Mayor Sheng Thao to resign immediately and spare the city the cost of a recall,” NAACP Oakland President Cynthia Adams said after the raid.
The FBI investigation appears to extend well beyond Thao’s immediate political orbit. FBI agents, working in tandem with the IRS and U.S. Postal Service, also executed search warrants at three other locations tied to the Duong family, owners of California Waste Solutions – a major recycling firm based in Oakland.
That company, which holds lucrative municipal contracts in Oakland and San Jose, has previously been investigated over allegations it illegally funneled campaign contributions to multiple Oakland city council members, including Thao prior to her becoming mayor.
Andy Duong, a director at the recycling company, and his brother David, the CEO, both had their homes raided in the sweeping FBI operation, according to multiple reports.
The federal probe’s focus seems to be on the interconnected web of Democratic political donors, candidates, and generous government contracts has empowered Thao’s critics – including a recall effort that reached the critical signature threshold just this week to force a potential November election.
FBI raid the home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao (D): pic.twitter.com/lFoCnqY0GO
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 20, 2024
“We already have multiple smoking guns indicating Thao’s lack of fitness for public office,” Oakland United to Recall Sheng Thao [OUST], the removal campaign’s organizers, said bluntly. “OUST calls on the numerous individuals and organizations that endorsed Mayor Thao to speak out on these recent events.”
The group hopes to leverage the FBI’s high-profile raids to build momentum for Thao’s ouster. Should she choose to resign over 120 days before the November 5 general election, it could set up a special mayoral vote alongside the scheduled recall – an outcome organizers said they “preferred.”
For Thao, the ethics scandals has finally become a full blown federal criminal investigation, a dire political crisis just seven months since being sworn into office.
She has yet to publicly address the raids. However, a California Waste Solutions spokesperson maintained the company is “fully cooperating” while denying that any “unlawful or improper activity” occurred.
To supporters, Thao is the far-left progressive product of humble beginnings who overcame poverty to become Democrat-controlled Oakland’s first Hmong-American mayor.
To critics, her meteoric rise in California’s notoriously corrupt Democratic Party and questions about her own finances and controversial connections represent yet another civic betrayal of public trust — one that finally triggered a federal investigation implicating major political donors and city contractors in an influence-peddling scandal.
As legal sword hangs overhead, Thao’s political future – and she faces potential jail time – American voters are again left to wonder if they’ll see justice.