This week we’ve had both hanky-panky and big-time FBI action happening, including an FBI raid on a home in Oakland associated with Mayor Sheng Thao the day after her recall qualified for the November 2024 ballot. In Sacramento, former San Francisco District 6 supervisor and current Assemblyman Matt Haney was caught with his hands in the cookie jar after buying some luxury sports tickets — something I reported on X and discussed with Haney back in 2023.
The recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao that qualified for the November ballot was big news on June 19, but it was eclipsed early the next morning when the FBI raided a home associated with Thao’s boyfriend and his family. Neighbor Maribel Sainez told Politico, “FBI agents were heard ‘banging’ on the mayor’s door around 6 a.m., waking up the quiet street in Oakland’s Lincoln Highlands neighborhood” in the swanky Oakland Hills. Sainez also said Thao was escorted out of the home by FBI agents. Spokesperson Cameron Polan in the FBI’s San Francisco office confirmed to media that the bureau is conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity on Maiden Lane.” A public records search found the home, located at 80 Maiden Lane, was previously owned by Eloise Christensen Jones Hansen (now deceased). Sources say it’s also possible an “elderly woman named Vera Jones” now resides there. The current owner is Karen Kristina Stokes (deed granted in 2020 by a trust belonging in part to Jones Hansen), who, along with Vera Jones, may be related to Thao’s boyfriend, Andre Jones. In a December 2023 X post, Jones said he was “the person who designed the state’s cannabis grant equity program.”
The FBI also searched the offices of California Waste Solutions at Oakland’s Embarcadero, the home of California Waste Solutions’ Andy Duong on View Crest Court, and the home of California Waste Solutions’ David and Linda Duong on Skyline Boulevard. According to a Sept. 15, 2020, Oaklandside article, the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, the city’s independent watchdog agency, quietly launched a major investigation into allegations that the owners of California Waste Solutions, Oakland’s curbside recycling provider, illegally laundered campaign contributions to multiple members of the City Council. Court records revealed that Public Ethics Commission investigators believe the owners of California Waste Solutions, including David Duong and his son, Andy Duong, funneled money over several election cycles through “straw donors” to multiple councilmembers’ campaign committees.” (A straw donor is someone who makes a campaign contribution and secretly gets reimbursed by someone else who is barred from making the same contribution.) The funds allegedly went to councilmembers running for reelection at the time, and to one councilwoman, Lynette Gibson McElhaney, to pay for an attorney who defended her in a separate ethics case. Besides McElhaney, the Public Ethics Commission named four other councilmembers who accepted some of the allegedly laundered money: Sheng Thao, Rebecca Kaplan, Larry Reid, and Dan Kalb.
In June 2018, investigators uncovered an internal Sheng Thao for Oakland City Council email between people working on Thao’s campaign. A Thao representative wrote to other team members asking about people they would like to invite to the campaign’s “finance committee” to raise money. “Have you spoke with Andy Duong about $20,000 by June 30th?” the campaign representative asks. “Between June 20 and June 29, 2018, 14 contributions were provided to the Sheng Thao for Oakland City Council 2018 committee, seven of which were admitted reimbursements by or on behalf of Duong,” investigators wrote.
At that time, Assistant City Attorney Tricia Shafie also made it known that the investigation reaches “beyond Oakland,” and that state investigators with the California Fair Political Practices Commission are also on the case. That’s something to take note of, because California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his wife, District 18 Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, have very close ties to Andy Duong, who has contributed thousands of dollars to Rob Bonta. On his Instagram account, Duong posts numerous photos of the three together at events, including one of him with Rob Bonta at a Golden State Warriors game. In another image, Duong and the Bontas appear to be in a limousine together after Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Bonta as California’s top cop. Duong’s caption reads, “Don’t even know where to start. Words cannot articulate. From one of the baddest soccer player [sic] to Vice Mayor to State Assembly and now CA Attorney General. After witnessing many years of your progressive, leadership, evolve, sacrifices that you and your family had put through, you have made history! Well beyond deserve! So proud of you! Huge congratulation to you Brother!”
Speaking of Sacramento, California Assemblyman Matt Haney has been caught dipping into the campaign cookie jar. With the tabloid headline, “49ers, Warriors tickets: Matt Haney’s boozy campaign spends $70K” (later changed to “Lawmaker spent $75K in campaign cash on 49ers, Giants, Warriors tix”), San Francisco Standard reporter Josh Koehn breathlessly details Haney’s trips to sporting events, which often included his besties, District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton and Mission District activist turned accused rapist Jon Jacobo (Koehn says Haney wiped Jacobo from his social media feeds after the rape allegations first surfaced in 2021).
Besides McElhaney, the Public Ethics Commission named four other councilmembers who accepted some of the allegedly laundered money: Sheng Thao, Rebecca Kaplan, Larry Reid, and Dan Kalb.
The Standard touted the article as a bombshell, but in reality, I broke the story of Haney’s questionably financed luxury sporting events in April 2023 on X, which included a box seat for a Golden State Warriors playoff game to celebrate his grandmother’s 93rd birthday, and a trip to Mexico City to watch the San Francisco Giants play the San Diego Padres. While Haney didn’t respond to the Standard’s “multiple interview requests and questions sent by text,” Haney did speak to me about it in 2023. “Just to clarify, when you were D6 supervisor and the suites went up for sale, you didn’t use your position in any way to help your grandparents,” I said to Haney via direct message, to which he responded, “I did not help my grandfather in any way with this suite. He arranged it entirely on his own. He’s been doing this for one game every playoff series since Oracle, before I was a supervisor, and has a direct relationship with the Warriors sales teams who he works with, having nothing to do with me.” Along with his explanation, Haney sent a photo of him with his grandparents, and a picture of the scoreboard wishing his grandmother a happy birthday.
The Standard’s Koehn also revisits a well-known social media photo of Walton and Haney tailgating at Levi’s Stadium “smoking a stogie” and claims that Haney “walked onto the field to hang within reaching distance of the Niners players as they warmed up — an expensive perk.” Koehn later walked that part back, stating it was “unclear how Haney got access to the field.” As it turns out, I know a little about that, too. I sat in the owner’s suite with the York family during the second-to-last 49ers game held at Candlestick Park in 2012. How did I swing that? I was invited by Denise and Dr. York because they liked my “writing about Italian food and dogs.” One of the perks was the ability to go down onto the field during the game which, according to the Yorks, is reserved only for top VIPs with personal invitations from the team. It was cold and stormy when a tackle between two gargantuan players happened a few feet away, the crack of helmets echoing like two rams battling on a mountaintop was followed by a splash of blood and mud and rain. That was enough for me. Back to the warm suite with the open bar, talking dogs with the Yorks, and perusing the gourmet spread alongside the late, great Dwight Clark.
So, Haney’s been splurging on himself using money from his donors. Is it illegal? Yes. Will much come of it? Doubtful. After Haney’s buddy Walton accepted $872 worth of 49er tickets, the Enforcement Division of the Fair Political Practices Commission assessed a $600 fine (gifts are limited to $500). Wally Conron, who accidentally created the Labradoodle and considered it the biggest regret of his life, once said, “There are a few ethical breeders but very, very few.” Keep that in mind when you donate to a politician.
Lest you think I’m being flippant, remember I’ve been covering San Francisco politics for two decades, and I broke the City Hall corruption stories that helped send disgraced Department of Public Works boss Mohammed Nuru to prison, with Nuru’s close friend Harlan Kelly Jr., former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, on his way. One of my articles about Dwayne Jones, mentor to the above-mentioned Supervisor Walton, is mentioned in the federal indictment which charged Jones with 59 counts of fraud.
In July 2020, when I wrote an exposé for the Marina Times called “Friends with Community Benefits,” about the SFPUC’s social impact pay-to-play scheme, I said I had a feeling the FBI would be knocking on the doors of Kelly and Jones, among others. Four months later, in November 2020, the FBI did indeed knock on the door of the Sunset District home Kelly shares with his wife, Naomi Kelly (who soon stepped down from her job as city administrator). Like with Thao, the feds raided the couple’s home, carrying out boxes of evidence. Even with this level of corruption, Nuru was sentenced to just six years in prison (which he’s currently serving) while this past March Kelly was sentenced to a meager four years. Kelly’s attorney Brian Getz asked that Kelly serve his sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary Lompoc, a medium-security prison in Santa Barbara County, where Nuru is serving his sentence. Judge Richard Seeborg granted the request. Former DBI senior inspector Bernie Curran, who pleaded guilty to bribery charges, was also sent to Lompoc and is already out.
If Lompoc sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same cushy facility where Full House actress Lori Loughlin’s husband Mossimo Giannulli served several months for his part in the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal in 2021; it was also the temporary residence of Watergate felon H.R. Haldeman in the late 1970s. Known as “the summer camp prison,” Lompoc features yoga classes, a cool ocean breeze, and a nearby airport to jet away after your early release. It’s also the place where Wall Street Prison Consultants director Larry Levine says Hunter Biden will likely serve his sentence. Just two hours northwest of Biden’s Malibu home, Levine (who served 10 years in 11 different federal prisons for narcotics and gun charges) told the New York Post that Lompoc is a prime spot. “It’s nice. I was there. It’s near the ocean, it’s got good climate, it’s a park-like setting. It’s laid back, they don’t lock the doors. It’s a lot of white-collar people hanging out, talking about their crimes.”
If that doesn’t put Haney raiding the contribution cookie jar in perspective, I don’t know what will.
Updated: July 11, 2024 to correct style inconsistencies