Jennifer Tran, a Cal State East Bay professor running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Oakland, accused a wide range of local elected officials of political corruption in a lengthy speech in front of Oakland City Hall today.
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She named Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, members of the City Council, and her opponent in the congressional election, Lateefah Simon, calling them “reckless politicians” and blaming them for Oakland’s public safety crisis, budget deficit, and the distrust swirling around the city after surprise FBI raids of the homes of Oakland mayor Sheng Thao and others.
The FBI raided the homes of Oakland businessmen David Duong and his son Andy last Thursday at the same time they searched Thao’s residence, and they searched the offices of California Waste Solutions, a company owned by the Duongs.
Tran, currently president of the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, said the Duong family may have played a corrupt game by steering money to politicians in order to shore up their business interests.
“For generations, corruption and ineptitude have been left to fester and infect our city governments, in every form from graft to no-bid contracts, real estate deals, kickback deals, election fraud, embezzlement, money laundering,” Tran said. “Mayor Sheng Thao is just another unfit, entrenched American mayor who decided to play the game as she saw it being played.”
Tran offered no evidence to back up her assertions. Simon, who currently serves on BART’s board of directors, has no authority over policing or spending in Oakland. Thao hasn’t been charged with any crime.
At the end of Tran’s press conference, ABC7 reporter Dan Noyes asked Tran how much money her campaign has taken from the Duongs to run for Congress. Tran acknowledged that she accepted several contributions from members of the Duong family.
Federal election records show that David Duong gave Tran’s campaign $6,600 this year, his wife Linda gave $3,300, and another family member, Michael Duong, also donated $3,300.
Tran said she would return the Duong’s money if it would lead to greater trust.
Tran’s father is implicated in alleged “straw donor” scheme focusing on the Duong family
During her speech, Tran addressed reports that her father may have been involved in an alleged political money laundering operation run by the Duongs.
The ongoing investigation, led by Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission and the state Fair Political Practices Commission, hasn’t led to any charges yet. However, according to case records obtained by The Oaklandside, Phuc Tran allegedly made a $700 campaign contribution to Councilmember Dan Kalb in 2016 and a $5,000 contribution to a legal defense fund set up by former Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney two years later. McElhaney’s defense fund paid legal bills for an ethics case she faced in 2018.
“According to his bank statements, although Tran had sufficient funds to cover this contribution, Tran deposited $5,000 into his bank account on the same day he made the contribution,” investigators wrote in court records four years ago, shortly after launching the case. Investigators claim that $5,000 was from the Duongs.
Phuc Tran said he was a “family friend” of the Duongs, according to court filings, and that he was helping the family fundraise. Investigators wrote that they have obtained “communications between Tran and the Duongs concerning some of the contributions.”
An Oakland ethics investigator wrote in court papers that other suspected straw donors were affiliated with the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, which Phuc Tran was president of at the time.
Jennifer Tran was a campaign consultant for Thao’s 2018 city council campaign, according to public records. She was paid $1,200. Public Ethics Commission investigator allege that the Duongs and others illegally funneled money to Thao’s campaign during this election cycle.
Phuc Tran resisted a subpoena from the ethics commission to hand over records related to the alleged straw donor scheme.
At her press conference today, Jennifer Tran, now the president of the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, distanced herself from her father and others linked to the campaign finance allegations the Duong family is facing.
“If they receive fair legal process and it is found that they or anyone broke the law, then I think they should be prosecuted for violating the public trust and contributing to this grotesque culture of public corruption in Oakland,” Tran said. “And that goes for anyone, including my own father.”
However, Tran added that she feels the city launched its investigation into the Duongs and her father as a form of “vindictive leverage” because the city was in a legal dispute with California Waste Solutions at the time having to do with the rates the company was charging property owners for its services.
Tran also said her father’s political fundraising was not a scheme to break the law but an effort to give small Oakland businesses and Vietnamese residents a voice.
“Most of these small business owners could barely speak English, and they organized what small political donations, legal ones, they could afford so they could donate as an underrepresented community,” said Tran.
Tran claimed that once the lawsuit between California Waste Solutions and the city was settled, the Public Ethics Commission investigators ceased their inquiries into the alleged straw donor scheme.
However, the Public Ethics Commission says the case is open and active. The FPPC’s website also lists the case as ongoing.
