EXCLUSIVE: San Leandro councilmember describes FBI raid at his home, worries about possible arrest

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (KGO) -- Only on ABC7 News, a San Leandro city councilmember described what the FBI wanted when they raided his home three months ago.

DAN NOYES: "When the FBI came here, were you home?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "Yeah, I was home."

Now, he is worried about being arrested in the investigation that has already led to the indictment of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her partner, the owner of California Waste Solutions and his son. Bryan Azevedo also described going on that trip to Vietnam with Sheng Thao and other public officials. It was sponsored by David Duong, the owner of California Waste Solutions, one of four people charged so far in the federal bribery and corruption case.

RELATED: FBI raids home of San Leandro councilmember

The Duong family that owns California Waste Solutions, a recycling contractor for the cities of Oakland and San Jose, also had a side business called Evolutionary Homes. They tried to sell shipping containers converted to housing for the homeless to local governments for $300,000 each, and they had a showroom at their bayside headquarters in Oakland.

The Duong family entertained city officials with karaoke and $300 bottles of whiskey, as a video shows from January of last year posted on Instagram by Andy Duong. He is now charged with bribery, conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, and false statements. In the video is Mario Juarez, co-founder of Evolutionary Homes, now a key witness for the prosecution, who is listed in the federal indictment as "co-conspirator 1". Azevedo can also be seen.

"I was just sitting there hanging out, listening to him," Azevedo told the I-Team. "I mean, they're friends. I mean, do you see anything wrong with that? See, as politics, since I come from construction, maybe, I don't know. Maybe I'm a little naive on some things. You know what I'm saying? I'm just being honest."

Azevedo is a sheet metal worker and foreman. His part-time position on the city council brings $30,000 a year in pay and benefits. After he did not return our email and phone calls about the FBI raid at his home, I-Team's Dan Noyes approached him at a city council meeting, and he agreed to an interview the following day.

TIMELINE: FBI political corruption investigation involving Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, Duong family

DAN NOYES: "Tell me how you first met Andy Duong and when was it?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "I believe I met him about 10 years ago."

DAN NOYES: "It seems to me, though, that at least looking through your social media and his as well, that you guys are tight."

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "Yeah, well, we know each other. Yeah, we hung out. Yeah, he is--he kind of reminds me of one of those frat brothers sometimes. But he's a great guy."

Public records show that Azevedo helped promote the Duong's business, Evolutionary Homes, setting up visits to the showroom for San Leandro city officials and staff.

RELATED: US attorney's office seeks Duong family records from city of San Leandro in Sheng Thao case: report

DAN NOYES: "How did your involvement with Evolutionary Homes come about?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "I, you know, I can't remember everything clearly, but I remember they were reaching out to several elected officials. And I went and I toured and I--other elected officials, several hundreds--I heard elected officials came to visit the homes."

San Leandro's former city manager said Azevedo arranged for her to tour the Evolutionary Homes showroom, and that during the visit, the Duongs pushed for this emergency homeless declaration. It would allow the city to buy units from Evolutionary Homes without getting bids from other companies.

The emergency homeless declaration met resistance from the San Leandro City Council and the mayor.

San Leandro Mayor Juan Gonzalez said, "I think there was a number of us who did not understand why we needed to pass an emergency declaration."

The council voted to kill the declaration, the clerk announcing, "Councilmember Azevedo, no."

With his "no" vote, Azevedo tried in vain to save it.

Law enforcement has not accused Azevedo of doing anything wrong, and he's not mentioned in the public court documents filed so far in the FBI's bribery and corruption case. The indictment says former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao promised to "use her position" to purchase 100 units from Evolutionary Homes in exchange for a $300,000 no-show job with the company for her partner, Andre Jones. The documents also say "the parties discussed" increasing Jones' salary "up to $3 million" if Oakland purchased 300 housing units, and that he would "earn a bonus of $10,000 per unit sold".

RELATED: Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao faces up to 95 years in prison on federal charges

A source with knowledge of the FBI investigation told the I-Team that agents are checking if Bryan Azevedo had any sort of financial agreement with the Duongs to sell Evolutionary Homes to the City of San Leandro.

DAN NOYES: "Was there some arrangement between you and the Duongs in terms of 'we'll give you a percentage if you sell X number of units'?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "I don't remember nothing, no."

DAN NOYES: "For you to say, 'I don't remember,' it's not going to look good for people. I mean, clearly--"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "I don't want to comment on that, because no, there was no arrangement on that."

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Azevedo told me the Duongs did make legal contributions to his campaign for mayor in 2022.

"I can't remember exactly," Azevedo said. "I think it was $3,000 from the Duong family and $2,000 from Andy. So that's $5,000. And then the other elections, I don't remember. I think he gave me $250 here or there."

Campaign records confirm those contributions. Azevedo lost the election for mayor by less than 300 votes.

DAN NOYES: "Beyond the on-the-table contributions, there were no envelopes with cash under the table?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "No, no."

Azevedo also reported a $6,400 gift from the Vietnamese American Business Association, a business advocacy group founded and headed by the Duong family, for a trip to Vietnam during the summer of 2023. David Duong started Vietnam Waste Solutions 20 years ago. Not that it has the same logo as his California company.

Some of Azevedo's colleagues at San Leandro City Hall wondered why Azevedo got the invitation to travel to Vietnam.

"I was not clear on the purpose of the trip at that time," said San Leandro Mayor Juan Gonzales. "He was not representing us in an official capacity. In other words, the city did not send him on any sort of trade mission."

DAN NOYES: "Did San Leandro actually get anything concrete from your trip to Vietnam?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "Well, I was invited because they have a big population of Vietnamese here in San Leandro. We have almost 15%, so I was there representing them and their beliefs and their culture."

Azevedo posted photos from the trip on Facebook: his business class flight, sightseeing with Andy Duong, with Mayor Sheng Thao, Alameda County Supervisor Lena Tam, Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez, actor Danny Glover and various officials from Vietnam.

And Andy Duong posted a video of the trip to Instagram, of Azevedo toasting the entourage, various nightlife scenes, and a pedicure.

"We got massages, and we were at places," Azevedo told the I-Team. "There was women around, but that doesn't mean I did anything."

When Azevedo returned to San Leandro from the 12-day trip to Vietnam, he told me rumors started to swirl.

BRYAN AZEVED: "Oh, well, you know, 'Bryan had prostitutes and drugs in Vietnam.'"

DAN NOYES: "Oh really?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "So I had businesses coming up to me telling me, yeah. And I'll explain to you like I did to the FBI about the drugs."

Azevedo says the FBI questioned him about the Vietnam trip, about being stopped at customs on the way home, but that it wasn't for drugs. He tells me he packed five souvenir lighters from a Vietnamese casino.

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "And they told me I can only keep one. So, that's how rumors get out there. Yeah. Yeah, we have--they're saying we had prostitutes, all this stuff--yeah, we got massages. That doesn't mean they're prostitutes. We had people serving drinks or whatever."

DAN NOYES: "But no sex acts were exchanged?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "No."

On Jan. 17 of this year, the FBI arrested California Waste Solutions Founder and President David Duong, his son, Andy, former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her partner, Andre Jones, and charged them in the bribery and corruption case.

Just two days before ...

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "(They said) 'Get out of your house with your hands up.'"

The FBI raided Bryan Azevedo's house at six in the morning.

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "My house was trashed. The garage was trashed."

DAN NOYES: "What did they take?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "They took cell phones, laptops and iPads."

Azevedo tells me he hasn't retained an attorney yet, because they're so expensive. He's waiting to see if he'll be arrested, and he has a timeframe. He counted the days between the FBI raid at Sheng Thao's house and when she was indicted.

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "So about 210 days, and they shouldn't have as much stuff on me. This, I mean, because I didn't do nothing, so--."

DAN NOYES: "You're counting the days."

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "Yeah.

DAN NOYES: "You are actually, huh?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "Yeah, 'cause I don't know what's going on."

DAN NOYES: "Looking back on all this, is there anything that you would have done differently?"

BRYAN AZEVEDO: "Yes, I would have never went on the trip. I would have let somebody else. It's been too much of a headache for me. It's too controversial. I didn't know all that was going on with Andy and all this. So, yeah, I wouldn't have went if I had known, for sure."

Mayor Gonzalez also told the I-Team Bryan Azevedo tried to help the Duongs compete for the garbage contract in San Leandro, but the councilmember denies it. By the way, Azevedo says he's staying off social media until this all plays out.