OAKLAND — The offices on the Port of Oakland that FBI and IRS agents searched last week were home not only to the Duong family's recycling business but in addition to an unknown home builder who links the influential family to a political official whose checkered past includes controversial campaign tactics.
Evolutionary Homes LLC, which sells homes produced from shipping containers, is much less well-known in Oakland than its owners' other company, California Waste Solutions. The Embarcadero suite utilized by the businesses was considered one of 4 addresses raided by federal agents on June 20. The homes of David Duong, Andy Duong and Mayor Sheng Thao were also searched as a part of a surprise investigation.
Both corporations are owned and operated by the Duongs, Vietnamese business leaders and political donors who’ve been accused for years of organizing an illegal campaign donation scheme in Alameda and Santa Clara counties.
It's unclear whether Evolutionary Homes is the topic of the federal government's investigation — no arrests or charges against anyone have been announced to date. But state business records show that the Duongs worked with Mario Juarez, a two-term candidate for Oakland City Council whose recent campaign dealings have caught the eye of Alameda County prosecutors and the state's political watchdog.
In a shocking turn of events, Juarez was attacked within the Evolutionary Homes constructing — considered one of two attacks, including a shooting at his home within the weeks before the June 20 raids, in line with his attorney and authorities. He suffered “serious” injuries within the attack at 1211 Embarcadero in early May, his attorney, Ernie Castillo, confirmed Friday. Juarez was later confronted by gunfire at his home within the 1800 block of Fruitvale Avenue on June 9, authorities said. He was unharmed and no arrests were announced.
“These were definitely attempts to murder Mario,” Castillo said in an interview.
Even though Evolutionary Homes lists only six employees on its website, the little-known home builder's worker list appears to have a large political reach.
One of the staffers listed, Cesley Frost, is the interim chief of staff for Alameda County Councilwoman Lena Tam. Two other staffers listed are married political consulting team Julie and Chris Wedge, who each worked for Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan for several years, with Julie serving as her chief of staff and campaign manager. This yr, they were the treasurers of Juarez's campaign for a seat on the county's Democratic Central Committee, in line with campaign documents. The Wedges didn’t reply to a request for comment.
The couple's time at Kaplan began two years after Mayor Thao worked at Kaplan along with her partner, former Chief of Staff Andre Jones.
Both Thao and Kaplan have received campaign contributions from the Duongs — including donations that local and state regulators have deemed potentially fraudulent. Investigators suspect the cash was funneled through obscure third-party corporations to avoid donation limits.
The Oakland Public Ethics Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission's investigations into the alleged “straw donor schemes” – which, in line with documents, involved tens of hundreds of dollars in money – should not yet complete, in line with the regulators.
Attempts by this news organization to succeed in the listed Evolutionary Homes officials and Kaplan this week were unsuccessful.
Responding to an issue about Evolutionary Homes on Thursday, Supervisor Tam said in a text message: “I do not know the company you mentioned and believe it no longer exists.” She added that her chief of staff “never worked for the Duongs or their partner companies” and was merely a “friend of Andy Duong.”
A spokesman for the Duongs declined to reply questions on the container home-based business and as a substitute provided the one statement released on behalf of the family since last week's raids.
In it, the Duongs claimed they were “very surprised” by the FBI's searches and stressed that they’d cooperate with the investigation. The statement stressed that the family has been based within the Bay Area for 4 many years and that they’ve built relationships with people and businesses “everywhere.”
“We believe we have not been involved in or committed any illegal activities and await the decision of law enforcement,” said the statement from Teresa Hoang, an executive with the Vietnamese American Business Association. “In the meantime, CWS will continue to proudly provide recycling services to countless communities throughout the Bay Area.”
In videos posted to YouTube in December, Juarez boasted about Evolutionary Homes' mission to supply much-needed housing for homeless women and kids. The one-bedroom, one-bath modular homes — which appear to be shipping containers — cost nearly $300,000 each and include a kitchen and washer and dryer system, the corporate's website says.
“The housing we provide is beautiful,” Juarez said within the video produced by the Vietnamese American Business Association, a company with close ties to the Duong family. Juarez added that the homes were “built around the idea that we wanted to inspire people to be better.”
A month after his appearance within the video, Juarez bumped into legal trouble.
In January, Alameda County prosecutors charged Juarez with one count of aggravated voter fraud stemming from election mail-ins that Juarez allegedly orchestrated against Thao's most important political rival – mayoral candidate Loren Taylor – in the course of the final 10 days of the 2022 mayoral race. His attack ads also targeted mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente and former Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Prosecutors say Juarez ordered the flyers from an Oakland unsolicited mail company by writing checks for nearly $53,600 that bounced because he had lower than $215 in his checking account on the time, court records show. He has since pleaded not guilty. Juarez couldn’t be reached for comment, but his attorney called his client innocent and called the costs “politically motivated and deplorable.”
The Fair Political Practices Commission is currently investigating the emails after Juarez ignored warnings that he had not filed disclosure forms detailing the origin of his money, as required by state law.
It was the newest twist in a profession of great entrepreneurial ambitions and various financial worries for Juarez.
At various times over the past few many years, he founded or led corporations focused on debt collection, entertainment, clean energy and real estate – a lot of which now not exist.
At the identical time, county records show that regulators filed at the least $96,000 in state and federal tax liens against him since 2015. At least three of the state liens were still outstanding as of this week, while the status of a $79,000 federal lien was unclear. He also needed to give up his real estate license in 2015 amid allegations of illegal business practices.
Recent government documents suggest the Duongs can have gained greater control over the corporate and its leadership. The 2023 and 2024 documents list David Duong for the primary time, while Juarez's name disappeared from California Department of State records.
Nevertheless, Juarez continued to function a spokesperson for Evolutionary Homes through at the least the top of 2023, appearing in videos published online to stipulate a vision for the corporate's future.
“Many government agencies are interested in doing business with us,” Juarez said, indicating that arrangements have already been made. “And I think that has a lot to do with us talking about business with the government.”
image credit : www.mercurynews.com