One of the people who appears to be at the center of the FBI’s ongoing investigation of public corruption in Oakland, Mario Juarez, tried, four years ago, to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars from a city grant program meant to help struggling businesses, The Oaklandside has learned.
And one of the city officials in a position to approve the money was Larry Gallegos, then the project manager for the city’s Economic and Workforce Development Department.
Gallegos is seemingly referenced in the FBI’s case against former mayor Sheng Thao, her partner Andre Jones, and David and Andy Duong, who are all accused of conspiracy and bribery related to city contracts. According to the feds, a city employee matching Gallegos’ job description was briefly promoted to a key role in the city’s bureaucracy at Thao’s direction to facilitate the awarding of a multi-million dollar homeless housing contract to a company run by the Duongs and Juarez. According to prosecutors, Thao did this after receiving bribes…