Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao in California and three others, including "trash king" David Duong, the head of California Waste Solutions, have been accused of bribery, fraud, and abuse of power for personal gain.

According to NBC News, on January 17, former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, David Duong, his son Andy Duong, and Andre Jones, Thao’s long-time partner, appeared in court.

During the first court appearance, Sheng Thao pleaded not guilty and was released on $50,000 bail. Andre Jones also pleaded not guilty.

NBC News reported that the indictment alleges Thao and her partner conspired to steer city business contracts to companies owned by David Duong and his son in exchange for money and benefits.

Thao allowed Oakland to purchase property from one of Duong’s family companies and extended contracts with his recycling company.

In return, David Duong and his son pledged $75,000 to fund a mailer attacking Thao's political opponents and paid $300,000 to Andre Jones.

Sheng Thao, 38, is a Vietnamese American woman who took office as Oakland's mayor in January 2023, serving for nearly two years.

In June 2024, The Guardian reported that FBI agents searched Sheng Thao's home and two properties belonging to David Duong's family. In November, Thao was dismissed from her position as mayor of Oakland.

David Duong is a well-known businessman who owns the recycling company California Waste Solutions (CWS). For years, CWS has been investigated for its contributions to the Sheng Thao and other Oakland officials’ election campaigns.

The Oakland Side reported that David Duong's family had many political ties in Oakland and had previously been investigated for allegedly transferring money illegally to politicians in previous elections. Duong ’s family has controlled waste recycle services in the city.

David Duong is recognized as a prominent member of the Vietnamese-American community in the San Francisco Bay Area. He founded CWS in 1992.

The company's website showed that Duong 's family owned a paper mill in Vietnam. In 1979, the family left Vietnam and settled in San Francisco. In 1983, they established a small paper recycling company called CoGiDo Recycling and purchased a warehouse in West Oakland that year.

Waste management was the first job Duong’s family did when arriving in San Francisco. Over time, this industry not only brought fame to David Duong and his family among the Vietnamese community in the US, but also within the wider waste management industry.

CWS is the official recycler and collector for Oakland. The company's workers pick up recyclable waste from residential and business areas daily. CWS also provided service to the city of San Jose.

In Vietnam, David Duong also operated a waste processing facility in HCM City.

According to Oakland Side, in 2014, CWS unexpectedly surpassed a major corporation, Waste Management, to win a billion-dollar contract to operate recycling services for the city of Oakland.

However, the city later decided to allocate the garbage collection to Waste Management and garbage recycling to CWS.

Winning large contracts earned David Duong the nickname "trash tycoon."

In 2017, the city of Oakland sued CWS for allegedly overcharging some large property owners, earning millions in extra profits. CWS then countersued the city. By 2021, CWS agreed to refund more than $6 million to property owners and lower service fees.

In Vietnam, David Duong founded Vietnam Waste Solutions (VWS) in 2004. In 2007, Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex project (in Binh Chanh District) became operational, starting receiving and treating waste for HCM City with the capacity of 5,00 tons of waste per day.

Local newspapers in mid-2024 reported that the Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex may have to shut down. However, VWS then was developing a project to use incineration technology to generate electricity with a capacity of 3,000 tons/day, worth about VND10,000 billion, at the Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex. 

The project was believed to produce more than 46MW of electricity to connect to the national grid. In addition, there was a waste treatment project for the Southern key economic region located in Long An province.

Manh Ha