SF News With Massive Trove of Evidence, Judge Limits Prosecution Exhibits In Corruption Case Against Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao made her latest appearance in federal court on Friday, where US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told prosecutors to limit their evidence exhibits from 1,700 down to 300 in the ongoing FBI bribery and corruption case against her.
SF Politics Feds Reveal New Allegations Against Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao as Informant Takes Guilty Plea We now know that the key informant in the federal bribery and corruption case involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her romantic partner, and a father-son business duo has pleaded guilty himself, and more details in the case have emerged.
SF News Federal Judge Rejects Motion By Sheng Thao and Co-Defendants to Toss Evidence In Corruption Case The judge in the federal corruption trial involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and three co-defendants has denied a motion by the defendants to toss evidence that they say was obtained inappropriately by investigators.
SF Politics San Leandro City Councilman Pleads Guilty, Becomes Potential Witness Against Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Former San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo filed a guilty plea in federal court Wednesday in the corruption case that also ensnared former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, making him now a potential witness against her.
SF Politics State AG Rob Bonta Dragged Back Into Sheng Thao Scandal, With Claims There Is ‘Compromising’ Video of Him A witness in the Sheng Thao investigation claims there is “compromising” video tying state Attorney General Rob Bonta into the whole mess, which may be a hogwash claim, but Bonta has spent about $500,000 on lawyers to defend himself.
SF Politics San Leandro City Councilmember Dragged Into Sheng Thao Scandal May Be on Verge of the Feds Flipping Him A big fish in the Sheng Thao scandal may be ready to turn evidence against Thao and the people accused of bribing her, as San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo might sing like a bird to avoid his own bribery charges.
SF Politics More Sheng Thao Fallout: San Leandro City Councilmember Charged With Bribery, Lying to FBI There’s more dirty laundry coming out in the whole Sheng Thao mess, as San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo faces federal charges for taking bribes and kickbacks, and lying to the FBI about a $2,000 envelope of cash.
SF Politics Sheng Thao’s Lawyer May Try to Move Bribery Trial Out of Oakland, Which Would Further Delay the Trial Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s lawyer is considering a bid to move her bribery trial out of Oakland, and in other news, it seems Sheng Thao may have broken up with the boyfriend whose $95k no-show job is at the heart of this scandal.
SF Politics San Leandro City Councilmember Notified By Feds He Is Under Investigation, Could Be Indicted In a federal investigation scandal that bears some clear similarities to the one that, at least in part, led to the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo is now officially under investigation by the feds.
SF Politics Oakland Fires Sheng Thao’s Former Chief of Staff Over Note That Refers to Using Black People as ‘Tokens’ Former Sheng Thao chief of staff Leigh Hanson was kept on after the recall, but was fired Sunday over a 2024 meeting note that referred to Black people as “tokens,” though she says it was a reference to certain Black people being paid by the recall campaign.
SF Politics Feds Release New Sheng Thao Documents, Showing Depth of Her Boyfriend’s City Hall Involvement Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s romantic partner Andre Jones is accused of taking a $95,000 no-show job from Thao’s big-bucks donors. But newly released documents say he showed up plenty on high-price junkets to Vietnam and the SXSW festival.
SF Politics Suspect Charged in Shooting Attack at the Home of Potential Sheng Thao Case Informant It is widely believed that Oakland businessman Mario Juarez was an informant on the case that led to the raid of Sheng Thao’s home. Some might assume that's why shots were fired at him at his Fruitvale home, and now charges have been filed in that case.
SF Politics Barbara Lee Returns $5,000 From Donors Indicted In Sheng Thao Scandal, Though She’s Taken $66K From Them Barbara Lee’s campaign to be mayor of Oakland doesn't need its first scandal, so she returned a $5,000 donation from the now-indicted Sheng Thao donors, but those same scandal-tainted donors have actually given her campaigns $66,250 over the last 26 years.
SF News Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Makes First Appearance In Federal Court Recalled Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao made her first court appearance at a procedural hearing Thursday in federal court in Oakland, and the judge seemed to be throwing some shade in her direction.
SF Politics Feds’ Sheng Thao Indictment Says She Actually Tried to Solicit $3 Million Bribe When the Department of Justice announced their indictment of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao last week, they said her live-in boyfriend was bribed to the tune of $95,000. But the full indictment says Thao actually asked for $3 million, though didn’t get it.
SF News Sheng Thao (and Her Boyfriend) Indicted on Eight Federal Counts of Bribery and Corruption The hammer finally came down on former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao seven months after the FBI raided her home, and she now faces charges that she received kickbacks from major political donors, including the offer of a $95,000 no-show job for her romantic partner.
SF Politics Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Is, Indeed, Getting Indicted Less than 24 hours after the FBI raided the home of another East Bay politician in connection with an apparently broad-ranging corruption scandal, we learn that former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is getting federally indicted.
SF News Tuesday Morning What's Up: Sheng Thao Serves Final Day as Oakland Mayor It's Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao's last day in office; a man was found dead in a burning RV on Wood Street in West Oakland; TikTok has asked the Supreme Court to block the law that wants to shut down its US operations.
SF Politics Is This Why the FBI Raided Sheng Thao’s Home? Filings Allege High-Rollers Traded Campaign Donations for City Contracts A new set of filings allege that a recycling company and a security firm funneled nearly $300,000 to a Sheng Thao political operative in exchange for lucrative city contracts, and now that political operative may have flipped and could be cooperating with the feds.
SF Politics FBI Probe That Brought Raid of Sheng Thao’s Home Has Witnesses Giving Closed-Door Testimony The FBI appears to be making progress in whatever investigation resulted in the June raid of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home, as witnesses are being subpoenaed, but we still don’t know why the raid happened or who the FBI’s suspects are.
SF Politics Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Recalled, and So Is DA Pamela Price, as the Chronicle Is Calling Both Races With the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao leading by a massive percentage, and in the absence of anyone else making the call, the SF Chronicle is calling the race for the recall proponents. Same, too, for the recall of DA Pamela Price.
SF Politics Recalls of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and DA Pamela Price Appear to Be Passing Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao looks likely to be recalled based on preliminary election results, and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price also looks to be getting recalled, by a wide margin.
SF News Man Who Claims Pamela Price Tried To Extort $25,000 Out of Him Produces Small Shreds of Evidence An Oakland businessman with a checkered past and connections to the Sheng Thao raid claimed this month that Alameda County DA Pamela Price tried to shake him down for $25,000. His attorney just produced some documents that kind of, sort of support his claim.
SF Politics Recall Sheng Thao Rally Devolves Into Chaos When Passerby Gets Called Out by Name, Tries to Grab Microphone There may not have been many people attending a Recall Sheng Thao rally on Tuesday in Oakland, but it’s making headlines anyway, as a businessman walking past was yelled at from onstage, confronted the speaker, and mayhem ensued.
SF Politics Sheng Thao Touts Drop In Oakland Crime and $2 Million Crime-Fighting Grant, as Recall Election Looms Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is trumpeting a 33% drop in crime and a new $2 million federal grant to the city's crime-fighting ceasefire strategy, but a couple major Bay Area newspapers just endorsed recalling her.
