In a July 4, 2024, column, I exposed possible links to Attorney General Rob Bonta and a bar reportedly owned by Andy Duong called the Music Cafe, which had been busted for drugs, prostitution, and human trafficking. Duong, whose family ran a waste company at the center of a sprawling East Bay corruption scandal, touts an Instagram filled with smiling selfies taken with California politicians including Bonta and his wife Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and the Democratic candidate running to become the state’s next governor, Xavier Becerra.
In April, I wrote that Mario Juarez, a political operative with close ties to both Duong and Bonta, had sent a letter warning Bonta of a compromising video of the attorney general taken by Duong. Five months after he received the letter, Bonta spent nearly half a million dollars from his campaign fund for “legal advice” tied to the corruption case involving Andy Duong, former Oakland mayor Sheng Thao, and other politicos. Now federal prosecutors have released new details in the case, including alleged evidence obtained from Duong’s cell phone that shows he “filmed/recorded city employees and officials as part of the conspiracy, with the hopes of using the recordings for potential blackmail.” The new information was made public Friday in response to the defendants seeking to exclude evidence from the upcoming trial that their attorneys claim are unrelated to the charges.
The connections between Juarez, Duong, and the Bontas run deep. In 2016, then-Assemblyman Bonta asked the California Energy Commission to award a $3.4 million grant to Viridis Fuels of Oakland. Former Oakland port commissioner Kathy Neal was CEO of Viridis and Juarez served as president. In April 2016, the Energy Commission approved the grant for a plant that would manufacture up to 20 million gallons per year of biodiesel fuel and 4 million gallons of glycerin. On June 6, Neal contributed $1,000 to Bonta’s reelection campaign, and her ex-husband, former Oakland mayor Elihu Harris, who is listed as chairman of Viridis’s advisers, contributed $250. Juarez had already contributed $500.
When Bonta’s wife, Mia, ran for her husband’s job in the California State Assembly after Governor Newsom appointed him as attorney general, her campaign office was located at 1241 High Street in Oakland, which also happened to be the address of Viridis Fuels. In 2014, Juarez sent a letter from the 1241 High Street address to California Waste Solutions, owned by the Duong family. “Viridis Fuels is pleased to acknowledge our proposed support of California Waste Solutions’ expansion and operations. We appreciate the opportunity to work with your team as your reputation is exemplary,” Juarez kowtows. He goes on to describe a partnership that will include use of a six-acre parcel in the North Gateway Area of the former Army Base. “The site is fully CECA approved and would provide a complimentary co-location of our development with your operations. We clearly understand your needs and concur with your request to secure a portion of this site. … We look forward to formalizing our agreement and providing CWS with our full support. …”
Mia Bonta endorsed Juarez when he ran unsuccessfully for the Alameda Democratic Central Committee. In turn, Juarez made over $2,500 worth of donations to her campaign. Other donors included Sheng Thao, David Duong (Andy’s father), and Mon Kil Quan. Investigators allege that Quan was one of the straw donors who illegally made contributions on Andy Duong’s behalf.
While Quan was listed as the owner of Music Cafe, a downtown Oakland restaurant and karaoke lounge, investigators believe Andy Duong was the actual proprietor. After a 2018 Alcoholic Beverage Control raid, Music Cafe lost its liquor license. Two women who allegedly sold drugs and agreed to provide sex to undercover agents were prosecuted by the Alameda district attorney’s office. According to filings, four undercover agents made multiple late-night visits to the cafe in 2018 where they said they were able to obtain ketamine and ecstasy from the workers. Approximately 20 female “companions” were brought into their karaoke room for them to choose from, where agents said they paid $100 each for the women to join them. During the raid, cash and narcotics were also confiscated. Another alleged straw donor, Music Cafe manager Charlie Ngo, was one of three people arrested in 2018 (two counts of felony possession of ketamine for sale were later dismissed). An employee originally facing 11 counts including felony human trafficking, sale and possession of narcotics, and pimping and pandering, pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit a crime.
In May 2024, Juarez sent Bonta the ominous letter warning that Andy Duong possessed damning surveillance video footage of him. “I hold you in high regard for your commitment to justice and integrity, which is why I feel compelled to bring this issue to your attention,” Juarez writes. “It is also important that you know that Andy Duong in particular has a recording of you in a compromising situation and that he routinely engages in entertaining elected and other officials to extract recordings without their knowledge for later use in blackmail circumstances.” Juarez said release of the recordings could cause “public embarrassment at the least” or expose “illicit activities, including the use of drugs.”
Five months after receiving the letter, Bonta acknowledged $468,000 from his 2026 reelection campaign went to the law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati — the most money ever spent on legal help by any candidate running for statewide office in California. Dan Newman, Bonta’s senior adviser, confirmed that the payments were for legal advice in the East Bay bribery investigation that involving Thao and the Duong family.
Bonta denies Juarez’s claims and continually tries to distance himself from the fray, however, prosecutors don’t seem to agree. In a December 2024 filing, Alameda County Senior Assistant District Attorney Kwixuan Maloof wrote that Bonta was “too compromised” to take over the Duong and Juarez cases without violating a state law intended to prevent conflicts of interests in prosecutions. “They have publicly endorsed each other and have used the same office for their business dealings,” the motion said. “In local Democratic political circles, the defendants and the Bontas’ extensive intertwined political and business dealings are widely known.”
