When images of FBI agents carrying boxes out of Sheng Thao’s Oakland home hit the news and social media in June of 2024, it was the public’s first glimpse of a possible investigation of the then-mayor.
But records now show that agents had been working for over a year on the probe that led to the indictment of Thao, her partner Andre Jones and businessmen David and Andy Duong.
And two weeks prior to the raids, they had sat down for the first time with a man who would become a key informant in the case…