OAKLAND — A key figure in the federal government’s sprawling public corruption investigation is also accused of bilking the embattled and politically connected Duong family out of $1 million in a failed real estate project, newly obtained documents show.
The charges against Mario Juarez, a two-time Oakland City Council candidate and longtime politician, shed new light on his close ties to the Duong family, which owns the Oakland recycling company. And the new details shed new light on a dispute that turned physical in early May between two sides who claimed the other owed them money.
A month later, the FBI raided addresses linked to David Duong and his son, Andy Duong, as part of a wide-ranging investigation that also included a search of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s home in the Oakland Hills. The headquarters of the Duong family’s city-contracted waste recycling company, California Waste Solutions, was also targeted in the raid.
Federal authorities have not commented on the scope of the investigation since the June 20 raids. But federal grand jury subpoenas sent last month show that investigators appear to be casting a wide net, ordering the city to produce documents related to Mayor Thao’s girlfriend, Andre Jones, the former Oakland military base, Thao’s own schedule and Oakland Police Department phone books.
Among the entities targeted by the federal investigation is an obscure real estate developer called Evolutionary Homes, founded by Mario Juarez and David Duong in 2022. The company appears to have gone bankrupt due to a growing rift between Juarez and members of the Duong family.
Juarez approached the Duong family with the idea of building homes out of repurposed shipping containers for homeless women and children. The company shared a business address with the Duongs’ main company, California Waste Solutions, and had a showroom on another floor of that same Oakland waterfront office building.
Evolutionary Homes appears to have caught the attention of local Oakland officials last winter, as Juarez sought government funding for the venture. The shipping container-like homes were to be built in Mexico and shipped by boat or truck to the San Francisco Bay Area.
But the case appears to have gone badly, according to authorities.
Andy Duong told an investigator with the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office that his family initially invested $800,000 in the project for 50 container homes, and that their commitment eventually grew to $1 million. But they said Juarez failed to honor that investment, providing only two homes before the family decided to abandon the project, according to investigative documents obtained by this news organization.
When the Duongs pressured Juarez, he “made excuses that he was close, or that labor or material costs were slowing things down,” the investigative records say.
The business relationship came to a head on May 3, when Juarez arrived at the Duongs’ office at 1211 Embarcadero to confront them about their accusations that the family still owed him money to pay employees in Mexico, authorities said. A family member told the prosecutor’s office that Juarez “held them up for hours demanding money and that they feared for their safety because he is known to carry weapons,” according to the documents.
Juarez’s attorney later said that Juarez was assaulted during the encounter, which was reported to the Oakland Police Department.
Just a month later, Juarez claimed he was the target of an assassination attempt when gunmen shot him about nine times as he stood outside his East Oakland home, according to police reports. Juarez took cover and fired four rounds from his registered .40-caliber Glock pistol, ending what he told police was an assassination attempt in “retaliation” for his involvement in a criminal investigation, the report said.
The Evolutionary Homes saga isn’t the only business case that has caught the attention of local authorities involving Juarez, a prolific businessman who has dabbled in entertainment, clean energy and real estate. He was forced to surrender his real estate license in 2015 amid allegations of illicit business dealings, state records show.
The district attorney’s real estate fraud unit is investigating whether Juarez defaulted on a quarter-million-dollar loan from a prominent Chinatown executive nearly three years ago while misrepresenting key aspects of the collateral that was used to secure the line of credit, investigative records show.
Stewart Chen, who heads Oakland’s Chinatown Improvement Council, told investigators he began doing business with Juarez after Andy Duong vouched for him.
Juarez initially asked Chen for a high-interest loan of $100,000 in December 2021, which he repaid in full, according to the documents.
But the trouble allegedly started after Juarez got a second, high-interest $250,000 loan from Chen just weeks after paying off the first one. When Juarez allegedly fell behind on his payments, Chen realized there was a problem with the property Juarez had used as collateral for the deal: It had already been used to secure a loan more than 10 times larger from someone else, the documents show.
The East Oakland property at the center of Chen’s loan had previously been used as collateral for a $3 million loan that Juarez requested in November 2021 from a company called Balboa LLC, the documents show. Chen told investigators that he would not have accepted the loans had he known that information, and that Juarez became “antagonistic,” “dismissive” and “threatening” when pressed to fulfill the agreement, the documents show.
In an interview, Chen confirmed that the loan had not been repaid. “It’s a shame,” Chen said. “This is my money that I’m counting on for retirement. I don’t know if I’ll ever see a cent of it again.”
Juarez appears to have defaulted on that initial $3 million loan from Balboa, and the property was foreclosed on in early December 2022. As a result, the deal cost Balboa LLC nearly $4 million, according to the documents.
As part of their investigation, the district attorney’s real estate fraud unit has begun digging into Juarez’s financial assets and has signaled its intention to retrieve his bank records, documents show. His attorney, Ernie Castillo, declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.
Juarez was already in legal jeopardy over another unpaid debt allegation.
In January, Alameda County prosecutors charged him in a criminal fraud case stemming from campaign mailers that Juarez allegedly orchestrated against Thao’s main political rival — mayoral opponent Loren Taylor — during the final 10 days of the 2022 election campaign. His attack ads also targeted mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente and former Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Prosecutors say Juarez ordered the fliers from a family-owned mailing company in Oakland by writing nearly $53,600 in bad checks because he had less than $215 in that bank account at the time, according to court documents. He has since pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Castillo, has previously called the charges brought by District Attorney Pamela Price’s office “politically motivated and unfortunate.”
A hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to bring the case to trial has not yet taken place.
Last week, Castillo asked a judge to postpone the hearing, saying he planned to file a motion to remove the prosecutor’s office from the case, citing “vindictive” and “outrageous” behavior. That motion had not been filed as of Tuesday afternoon.
Jakob Rodgers is a breaking news reporter. Call, text, or encrypted message him via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
