San Jose’s recycling hauler criminally indicted on bribery charges

The CEO of San Jose’s recycling hauler was federally charged for allegedly bribing former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her boyfriend.

California Waste Solutions CEO David Duong and his son, Andy, who also works for the company, are accused of paying $95,000 in bribes to Thao and her partner, Andre Jones. They also promised to pay $75,000 for negative mailers targeting Thao’s opponents when she ran for election in 2022 and $300,000 for a “no-show job” to Jones, according to a federal indictment released Friday.

In exchange, the indictment said Thao promised Oakland would do business with the Duongs’ housing company, extend their recycling company’s waste-hauling contract and appoint senior city officials selected by David, Andy and an unnamed local business associate.

Duong didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Local business leaders say San Jose officials – who have a $40 million contract with California Waste Solutions for citywide recycling services through 2036 – should question whether impropriety happened closer to home.

“I think any reasonable person looking at this situation should have grave concerns for the city of San Jose continuing to do business with this company,” Bob Staedler, a land use and development consultant, told San José Spotlight. “It’s not a small matter. These types of charges aren’t generally one-offs. They tend to be a characterization of how they handle business everywhere.”

Staedler, a former San José Spotlight columnist and candidate for an interim appointment to the City Council’s vacant District 3 seat, said that San Jose should immediately take a microscope to its employees’ and leaders’ relationship with Duong’s company.

“It’s common sense that the city should have concerns. Contracts shouldn’t run that long in general,” he said. “We just need to look at these kinds of issues and make sure we have checks and balances in place.”

Hai Huynh, a well-connected personal rival of Duong and a prominent Vietnamese American bail bonds businessman, questions whether San Jose is up to the task.

“With all the ‘pay-to-play’ allegations going on in the city of Oakland, how can the citizens of San Jose be assured the same scheme is not happening in the city of San Jose?” Huynh told San José Spotlight.

Huynh helped garner community support for Duong’s company, winning its first contract with San Jose in 2007. The relationship between the two later soured, when Huynh sparred with Duong in a courtroom restraining order trial and defamation lawsuit over alleged communist ties last year.

Councilmember Bien Doan, whose District 7 spans San Jose’s Little Saigon, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Spokespersons for the City Manager’s office declined to comment on what effect, if any, the indictment could have on the company’s contract with San Jose.

Mayor Matt Mahan declined to comment on Duong’s indictment.

Rocky relationship 

The city’s relationship with the company has at times been rocky. The city was locked in a contentious dispute with Duong’s company in 2019, after city administrators decried high contamination rates and poor performance, recommending the contract be terminated. Duong’s company blamed the city for unreasonable fines and failure to educate residents about recycling. They accused the city of discrimination against a minority-owned company and filed a $34 million lawsuit in 2023.

Local Vietnamese American anticommunist activists have been calling for the city to cut ties with Duong’s company. The ire stems from Duong chairing another organization, the Vietnamese American Business Association, which once co-sponsored a 2023 trip to Vietnam — where Duong also operates a waste management facility — for Oakland city officials including Thao.

The organization’s close ties with the Vietnamese government has rehashed long-simmering fights in older Vietnamese American political circles about who is or isn’t a so-called communist sympathizer. Some critics, including Huynh, also directed their criticism at attendees of the organization’s infamous 2023 gala, which included Councilmember Doan. The councilmember, in turn, accused Huynh of threatening his safety in a restraining order trial that put Duong on the stand as a witness.

Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.

Editor’s Note: Cal Waste Solutions has donated to San José Spotlight.