As former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao awaits her next court date on federal bribery charges, one of her former staffers claims she was alerted years ago to the alleged crimes.
Just weeks after this celebration in 2022, when Thao won the election for Oakland mayor …. Her former chief of staff, Renia Webb, said she started having concerns.
“When the FBI approached me ,what I found out was just heartbreaking and knowing that it would put Oakland further behind than we ever have been,” she said.
The bribery investigation into Thao, her longtime partner Andre Jones, and local businessmen David and Andy Duong, had started before the election. The Department of Justice alleged that Thao and her partner sold business contracts and powerful positions for profit.
Webb said the FBI approached her that December and she started to help them build a case.
“It’s just sickening that we were running a campaign telling people one thing making promises to take care of our city and all the while you and Andre were in the background conspiring to be crooks,” she said.
Webb claimed when she confronted Thao with questions about Jones allegedly selling positions, Thao already knew and encouraged her to stay silent.
“That’s when she told me oh you’re going to be making close to $200,000, let’s set up our families for life and I was like no thank you,” Webb said.
Webb resigned at the end of 2022, after she said she was harassed, targeted and told to stay silent. She added that she tried to alert the Oakland City Council and other but said they all dismissed her, some accusing her of having mental health issues.
“I don’t have no reason to lie like why would I walk away from close to two hundred thousand dollars to take about a 400% pay cut if it wasn’t for a reason when i worked so hard to get her in the office,” Webb said.
The federal indictment alleges the Duong’s funded a $75,000 negative campaign against Thao’s opponents before the election and made 95-thousand dollars in payments to her partner for a fake job.
Mark Goldrosen, Jones’ attorney, released the following statement on Monday.
“Mr. Jones has pled not guilty to the indictment and vigorously denies all allegations contained therein as well as any other allegations of wrongdoing. He looks forward to the upcoming court proceedings, which we are confident will establish his innocence.”
Jeff Tsai, Thao’s attorney, did not respond to NBC Bay Area’s request for comment on Monday but previously denied Thao did anything wrong.
“The indictment itself is chock full of allegations, but it is not chock full of evidence. And that’s what we’re going to prove in the course of our defense in this case,” he said.
Meanwhile, Webb is now running for her old boss’s job in a crowded special election in April.
“We are at a reset but now we have a chance to move forward we have a chance to pick up to heal and to rebuild like Oakland is beautiful,” she said.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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