OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – A new court filing from the office of former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s office sheds new light on a possible connection between outgoing Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and California Waste Solutions. The business and Thao’s home were both raided by the FBI back in June.
Details about the reasons for the raid remain sealed, but the new court filing makes several allegations suggesting the owners of California Waste Solutions funded negative campaign flyers against Thao’s opponents in the 2022 election to get Thao elected and benefit their business.
Monday’s court filing stems from a criminal complaint filed by Price back in January against Mario Juarez alleging he passed bad checks. The DA alleges Juarez failed to pay a marketing company for printing and sending negative political mailers against 2022 mayoral candidates Loren Taylor and Ignacio de la Fuente.
In a court filing Monday, the DA’s office says in October of 2022, Juarez’s bank account “received a $75,000 check from California Waste Solutions.” Then, Juarez “proceeds to create and send the mailers to help Sheng Thao get elected to the Oakland mayor’s office.”
The filing goes on to say that after the November 2022 election Juarez “received an additional $170,000 total from ABC Security, the Duong family, and California Waste Solutions… These companies have valuable contracts with the City of Oakland and an interest in the election of then-candidate for mayor, Sheng Thao… Juarez was essentially a conduit for these companies to help the mayor win and preserve and enhance the companies’ access to taxpayer-funded contracts.”
The court documents also indicate Juarez sent two checks totaling $7,500 to Thao’s boyfriend, Andre Jones, but it does not suggest what those funds are for.
