San Leandro city councilman charged in bribery scandal

(KRON) — San Leandro City Council member Bryan Azevedo was charged by federal prosecutors on Tuesday with conspiring to commit fraud and lying to FBI agents.

Azevedo and co-conspirators devised a bribery and kickbacks scheme to defraud the public, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. Investigators said the scheme to secure city contracts for a housing company unfolded between the summers of 2023 and 2024.

Azevedo’s alleged co-conspirators — “Co-Conspirator 1” and “Co-Conspirator 2” — are identified in court documents as co-owners of an Oakland-based affordable housing company.

Prosecutors focused on a delegation trip to Vietnam that was attended by Azevedo and sponsored by a business association controlled by Co-Conspirator 1’s family. The business association paid for Azevedo’s trip expenses, including plane tickets, hotels, and meals for approximately 10 days, the complaint states.

After the Vietnam trip, Azevedo “agreed to use his power as a San Leandro City Councilperson to help obtain a city contract” for the affordable housing company, prosecutors wrote. In exchange, Azevedo allegedly received a percentage of sales from units that San Leandro purchased from the company, according to prosecutors.

The co-conspirators instructed Azevedo to open an LLC and bank account in his wife’s name to receive bribes and kickback payments to “mask Azevedo’s involvement in the scheme,” federal prosecutors wrote.

The councilman and a co-conspirator had dinner together at a restaurant in Alameda on Nov. 3, 2023, prosecutors said. During dinner, the co-conspirator gave Azevedo $2,000 in cash, according to the complaint. Days later, he deposited the cash into his wife’s recently-opened bank account, prosecutors said.

During the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, Azevedo advocated for an emergency shelter city ordinance, gave fellow councilmembers a tour of the housing company’s model units, and recommended that San Leandro buy the units, the complaint states.

On January 15, FBI agents served a search warrant at the councilmember’s home on Dillo Street. At the time, Azevedo declined to talk to a KRON4 reporter about what triggered the search.

That same day, Azevedo was interviewed by agents with the FBI and Internal Revenue Service. Agents asked the councilman if he had received cash payments from Co-Conspirator 1. “Azevedo responded that he had not. These statements Azevedo made to the agents were false and Azevedo knew they were false,” the complaint states.

KRON4 was not able to immediately reach Azevedo Tuesday for comment about charges filed against him.

Details in the criminal complaint mirror some allegations leveled against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her boyfriend, Andre Jones.  In January, a grand jury indicted Thao, Jones, and two businessmen — David Duong and Andy Duong — for bribery, mail fraud, and wire fraud.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not say if the investigation into Azevedo was connected to the Thao investigation.

According to prosecutors, Thao used her two years in office to devise a pay-to-play scheme that enriched herself and her boyfriend. Like Azevedo, Thao and Jones also went on a delegation trip to Vietnam in the summer of 2023. Thao’s trip was co-hosted by the Vietnamese American Business Association. Thao and Jones’ house, along with VABA’s headquarters, were raided simultaneously in June 2024.

San Leandro voters elected Azevedo to the City Council’s District 2 seat in 2020 and re-elected him in 2024.

When he was tapped to serve as the city’s Vice Mayor in 2023, Azevedo said, “It is an honor to have the confidence of my City Council colleagues to serve in this role. I desire to continue uplifting the community through active communications, courting our business community with City Hall support, and caring for the land with my regular community clean-ups.”

This breaking news story will be updated.