OAKLAND — A key figure within the U.S. government's sweeping investigation into public corruption can be accused of defrauding the controversial and politically well-connected Duong family of $1 million over a failed housing project, in response to newly emerged documents.
The allegations against Mario Juarez – a two-time candidate for Oakland City Council and longtime political activist – shed recent light on the close ties he had with the Duong family, which owns Oakland's recycling company. And the brand new details offer recent insight right into a dispute that escalated in early May between the 2 parties over claims the opposite party owed them money.
A month later, the FBI raided addresses related to David Duong and his son Andy Duong as a part of a sweeping investigation, including the Oakland Hills home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and the headquarters of the Duong family's city-owned waste recycling company, California Waste Solutions.
Federal authorities have said little in regards to the scope of the investigation for the reason that June 20 raids. But federal grand jury subpoenas sent out last month show that investigators seem like casting a large net, demanding that town turn over records on Mayor Thao's partner Andre Jones, the previous Oakland Army Base, Thao's own calendar and Oakland Police Department phone books.
Among the businesses targeted by the federal investigation is an unknown home developer called Evolutionary Homes, founded in 2022 by Mario Juarez and David Duong. The company appears to have failed amid a growing rift between Juarez and members of the Duong family.
Juarez approached the Duong family with the concept of constructing homes for homeless women and youngsters out of converted shipping containers. The company shared the identical business address because the Duongs' predominant business, CalWaste Solutions, and had a showroom on a special floor of the identical office constructing on the Port of Oakland.
Evolutionary Homes appears to have caught the eye of Oakland local authorities last winter, when Juarez tried to secure state funding for the corporate to construct container homes in Mexico and ship or truck them to the Bay Area.
But in response to authorities, the deal appears to have failed.
Andy Duong told an inspector with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office that his family initially invested $800,000 within the project for 50 container homes and that their commitment eventually rose to $1 million. However, they claimed that Juarez reneged on that investment and only built two homes before the family decided to desert the project, in response to investigative documents obtained by this news organization.
When the Duongs pressed Juarez, “he made excuses by saying he was nearby or that the cost of labor or materials was delaying things,” the investigation documents say.
The soured business relationship reached a climax on May 3, when Juarez showed up on the Duongs' offices at 1211 Embarcadero and confronted them, claiming the family owed him money to pay his staff in Mexico, authorities said. A member of the family told prosecutors that Juarez “held them for hours demanding money and they feared for their safety because he was known to carry guns,” the documents say.
Juarez's attorney later said that Juarez was attacked in the course of the altercation, which was reported to Oakland police.
Less than a month later, Juarez claimed he was the goal of an assassination attempt when gunmen fired an estimated nine shots at him as he stood outside his East Oakland home, police records show. Juarez took cover and fired 4 shots from his registered .40-caliber Glock pistol – ending the assassination attempt, which he described to police as “retaliation” for his involvement in a criminal investigation, in response to the report.
The Evolutionary Homes saga will not be the one business deal that has caught the attention of local authorities and involves Juarez, a successful businessman who has dabbled in entertainment, clean energy and real estate. He was forced to give up his real estate license in 2015 after being accused of unfair business practices, state records show.
According to investigative documents, the district attorney's real estate fraud unit is investigating whether Juarez defaulted on a quarter-million-dollar loan to a outstanding Chinatown resident nearly three years ago while misrepresenting key points of the collateral used to secure the loan.
Stewart Chen, chairman of the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council, told investigators he did business with Juarez after Andy Duong vouched for him.
Juarez first applied to Chen for a high-interest loan of $100,000 in December 2021, which he repaid in full, in response to documents.
But problems allegedly began after Juarez obtained a second, high-interest loan for $250,000 from Chen just weeks after paying off the primary loan. When Juarez allegedly defaulted on his payments, Chen realized there was an issue with the property Juarez had used as collateral within the deal: According to the documents, it had already been used as collateral for a loan greater than 10 times as large by another person.
The East Oakland property at issue in Chen's loan was already getting used as collateral for a $3 million loan that Juarez applied for in November 2021 from an organization called Balboa LLC, in response to the documents. Chen told investigators he wouldn’t have agreed to the loans if he had known that information, and that Juarez was “hostile,” “dismissive” and “threatening” when pressed to honor the deal, in response to the documents.
In an interview, Chen confirmed that the loan was not repaid. “This is rubbish,” Chen said. “It's my money that I'm counting on for my retirement. I don't know if I'll ever see a penny of it.”
Juarez appears to have defaulted on repaying Balboa's original $3 million loan, and the property was foreclosed on in early December 2022. As a result, the deal cost Balboa LLC nearly $4 million, records show.
As a part of its investigation, the state attorney's office's real estate fraud unit has begun examining Juarez's financial investments and has signaled its intention to seize his bank records, the filing shows. His attorney, Ernie Castillo, declined to comment on the continuing investigation.
Juarez was already in legal jeopardy over one other allegation of unpaid debts.
Alameda County prosecutors charged him in January with one count of aggravated voter fraud stemming from election mail-ins that Juarez allegedly orchestrated against Thao's predominant 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 a family-owned Oakland mailing company by writing checks for nearly $53,600 that bounced because he had lower than $215 in that checking account on the time, court records show. He has since pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Castillo, has previously called District Attorney Pamela Price's charges “politically motivated and deplorable.”
A hearing to find out whether there may be enough evidence to bring the case to trial has not yet taken place.
Castillo asked a judge last week to delay the case, citing plans to file a motion to disqualify prosecutors from the case due to “vindictive” and “outrageous” conduct. That motion had not been filed as of Tuesday afternoon.
Jakob Rodgers is a veteran breaking news reporter. Call, text or encrypted message him through Signal at 510-390-2351 or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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