Bryan Azevedo: Guilty Plea, False Statements, and Cooperation

Former San Leandro City Council member Bryan Azevedo entered a guilty plea on February 11, 2026, admitting to two federal charges tied to a bribery scheme with the owners of California Waste Solutions and their shipping-container housing startup, Evolutionary Homes. He is the first defendant to plead guilty in the sprawling East Bay corruption investigation that also charged former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, and he has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.¹

The Charges He Admitted To

Azevedo appeared before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and making false statements to a government agency.² The conspiracy count carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The false-statements count carries up to five years and a $250,000 fine.³

He had initially pleaded not guilty at a November 2025 arraignment, but filings that same month signaled the parties were close to a resolution.⁴ A status hearing is set for December 3, 2026. Because he is cooperating as a government witness, his eventual sentence is expected to fall well below the statutory maximums.¹

What Azevedo Admitted Doing

The conduct began in the summer of 2023 with a 10-day trip to Vietnam organized and paid for by the Vietnamese American Business Association, a trade group controlled by California Waste Solutions CEO David Duong. The association covered Azevedo’s business-class airfare, hotel, and meals. Roughly 50 people went, including former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her partner Andre Jones, Alameda County Supervisor Lena Tam, and Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez.⁵

After returning, Azevedo entered into a corrupt arrangement with the Duong family and their startup, Evolutionary Homes, which made transitional housing from shipping containers. Between August 2023 and June 2024, he used his council seat to push San Leandro to buy the company’s modular units as homeless shelters. He toured other city officials through model units, advocated for the purchase, and lobbied for an emergency homelessness ordinance that would have streamlined the procurement.² On June 17, 2024, he voted for that emergency shelter ordinance at a co-conspirator’s direction, though the council took no action on it.³

In exchange, Azevedo was promised a percentage of the sales price of any units San Leandro bought from Evolutionary Homes. In November 2023, he accepted $2,000 in cash from the Duongs at a dinner in Alameda. To hide the arrangement, he set up a limited liability company in his wife’s name and opened a dedicated bank account to receive future kickback payments.²

The False Statements to Federal Agents

The FBI raided Azevedo’s home in January 2025.¹ During a roughly hour-long interview with FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation agents, he falsely told them he had never received cash and that the Duong family had no business interests before the City of San Leandro. Those lies became the second count in his plea.⁴

Resignation Timed to the Plea

Azevedo, 49, a sheet metal worker foreman, was first elected to represent District 2 in 2020 and reelected in 2024.² He submitted a retirement letter on February 9, 2026, citing family and legal issues. The resignation took effect at 9:00 a.m. on February 10, one day before his plea hearing. The timing mattered: under California law, a felony guilty plea would have triggered his immediate suspension from the council.⁶

Cooperation and the Trial Ahead

Azevedo’s plea gave federal prosecutors their first admitted insider account of the alleged corruption network centered on the Duongs. David and Andy Duong, along with Sheng Thao and Andre Jones, were indicted in January 2025 on charges including bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud, and wire fraud. Andy Duong was also charged with lying to federal officials. All four have pleaded not guilty.⁴

Prosecutors allege the Duongs used their businesses and the Vietnamese American Business Association to build relationships with East Bay officials, then pursued lucrative municipal contracts through Evolutionary Homes, which they incorporated in September 2022. The company pitched a $90 million proposal to Oakland claiming it could build hundreds of modular homes within months, but never won a contract from any city, and the venture collapsed by 2024.⁷

Trial for Thao, Jones, and the two Duongs is scheduled to begin October 19, 2026, in Oakland, and is expected to run about five weeks. The defendants opted not to seek a change of venue, and prosecutors have produced 400 gigabytes of discovery.⁸ Judge Gonzalez Rogers, who accepted Azevedo’s plea, denied a defense motion in April 2026 to suppress evidence gathered in the June 2024 FBI raids, finding “no credible evidence that the government intended to deceive or acted with reckless disregard.”⁹ Whether Azevedo takes the stand, and what he says if he does, will be one of the central questions when that trial begins.

1
The Oaklandside. San Leandro Councilmember Bryan Azevedo Guilty Plea FBI Corruption Oakland
2
KQED. Former San Leandro City Councilmember Pleads Guilty in Federal Bribery Case
3
U.S. Department of Justice. Former San Leandro City Council Member Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes in Exchange for Actions
4
KQED. San Leandro Councilmember Accused of Corruption to Retire on Eve of Court Hearing
5
The Oaklandside. Thao’s Ties to Duongs: A Vietnam Trip, City Contracts, More Revealed in FBI Case
6
ABC7 News. San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo First to Plead Guilty in Oakland Federal Corruption Case
7
San Francisco Chronicle. Oakland FBI Probe Thao Duongs
8
KTVU. Ex-Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, Duongs Defense Teams Complain Feds Taking Too Long
9
The Oaklandside. Federal Judge Rules on Motion to Suppress Evidence in Oakland Corruption Case