Bryan Azevedo, the San Leandro city councilman recently charged in a federal corruption probe last week, may be nearing a plea deal, federal prosecutors have signaled.
The two-term councilmember is “close to reaching a resolution of his case,” which accused him of accepting a $2,000 cash bribe and a cut of future earnings from a fledgling housing business that had been seeking a lucrative city contract, federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing on Tuesday.
As a result, there likely “won’t be any substantive hearings until a potential change of plea or sentencing hearing” in Azevedo’s case, federal prosecutors added. Attempts by this news organization to reach him late Wednesday were not successful.
The revelation comes just a week after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California charged the councilman with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and lying to a government agency. If convicted, Azevedo faces up to 20 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and up to five years behind bars on the other count.
The specter of a plea deal emerged as prosecutors — for the first time — publicly linked Azevedo’s case to a sprawling corruption case in Oakland, which ensnared the city’s former mayor, Sheng Thao, along with her romantic partner, Andre Jones, and the father-and-son business duo of David and Andy Duong. The two cases “concern overlapping events and entities,” the prosecutors’ filing said.
Federal prosecutors claim Azevedo agreed to use his power as a member of the San Leandro City Council to help a local housing company secure a contract with the city, according to charging documents. In exchange, Azevedo expected to receive a percentage of the price from any units the city ultimately purchased from the business, prosecutors said. The company was not identified.
Azevedo was accused of creating a limited liability company in his wife’s name, and then opening a bank account at the behest of the housing company’s leaders to potentially receive more payments, according to court records.
On Nov. 3, 2023, Azevedo and a co-owner of the housing company — who also was not identified in court documents — had dinner in Alameda, during which the business owner gave $2,000 in cash to Azevedo, according to the charging documents. When later questioned by federal agents about the money, Azevedo denied receiving any such payment, leading to the false statements charge, prosecutors said.
Over the next several months, Azevedo then took several steps to help the housing company, including pushing other councilmembers to purchase units from the business, while also urging them to pass an emergency shelter ordinance that would have made a deal easier to accomplish, the federal charges say. Azevedo also allegedly helped coordinate a tour of the housing company’s model units, records show.
Azevedo has yet to make his initial appearance in federal court on the charges, with prosecutors having ordered him to appear on Nov. 12. Azevedo — a sheet-metal foreman by trade who won a second term last year — has previously professed his innocence.
Check back for updates to this developing story.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.
The Mercury News
Leave a Reply