OAKLAND — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday filed criminal charges against San Leandro City Councilmember Bryan Azevedo, claiming he accepted a $2,000 cash bribe and tried to secure a housing contract for a fledgling business in exchange for a cut of the future deal.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Abraham Fine — who also is spearheading the prosecution of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her romantic partner and two East Bay businessmen — filed the charges against Azevedo, whose house was raided by federal authorities in January. In many ways, the allegations against Azevedo mirror those filed in the Oakland case.

The felony charges Azevedo faces include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, as well as lying to a government agency.

Azevedo, who previously has professed his innocence, could not immediately be reached for comment, and it was unclear who is legally representing him.Federal prosecutors say 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 in exchange for a percentage of the price from any units the city ultimately purchased from the business, according to charging documents made public Tuesday. 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, federal prosecutors claim in court records.

On Nov. 3, 2023, Azevedo and a co-owner of the housing company — who 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, and 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.

A sheet-metal foreman by trade, Azevedo was elected to a second term on the San Leandro council in November 2024 by fewer than 500 votes. A knock on the door of his San Leandro home returned no response Tuesday afternoon — an apparent departure from Azevedo’s earlier penchant for giving interviews from behind his front gate.

On Tuesday, San Leandro Mayor Juan González III refrained from calling for Azevedo’s resignation, saying that was “premature.”

“Let’s just let this play out, and then we’ll see as things evolve on what actions we would take next,” González said.

Details of the alleged scheme authorities described Tuesday line up closely with other, previously-aired allegations involving Evolutionary Homes — a company co-founded by David Duong, who was indicted in January along with three others in an alleged pay-to-play and bribery scheme in Oakland.

The company, which aimed to use refurbished shipping containers to house homeless women and children, was co-founded by Mario Juarez, a longtime political operative who was previously identified by this news organization as an unidentified co-conspirator in the Oakland federal bribery case.

In that case, prosecutors accused former Mayor Thao of accepting bribes from David Duong and his son, Andy, in the form of political favors and a $95,000 no-show job for Thao’s romantic partner, Andre Jones. In return, prosecutors claimed Thao promised to secure a contract for Evolutionary Homes, as well as a renewed city contract for the Duongs’ recycling business, California Waste Solutions. Thao, Jones and David and Andy Duong have all pleaded not guilty and could face trial by early next year.

For months, federal authorities appeared to target a similar scheme in San Leandro.

In late 2023, Azevedo was among multiple councilmembers — including Councilman Victor Aguilar — to tour Evolutionary Homes’ waterfront showroom along Oakland’s Embarcadero.

Around that time, an Evolutionary Homes representative allegedly pitched San Leandro officials on declaring a state of emergency on homelessness, which would have cleared the bureaucratic path for the city to purchase the homes at $300,000 each and place them somewhere in San Leandro, according to emails previously obtained by this news organization. But city leaders ultimately decided against it, with Azevedo and Aguilar being the lone pair to cast a vote against shelving the matter.

Later that winter, federal investigators demanded San Leandro city officials turn over records related to David and Andy Duong, along with the Vietnamese American Business Association the elder Duong led as well as an affordable housing project they sought to start in the Bay Area. According to public records, the business association paid $6,400 to cover Azevedo’s airfare, hotel and meals during a 10-day trip with other public officials in Vietnam in 2023.

In May, then-Acting U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Robbins sent the councilman a letter giving him until May 30 to contact federal prosecutors regarding three possible criminal violations: conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and false statements in a federal investigation.

The following month, former San Leandro City Manager Fran Robustelli filed a lawsuit claiming Azevedo and Aguilar pressured her to help declare a homelessness emergency that could have benefitted the Duong’s housing company. When she refused to do so, Azevedo and Aguilar allegedly harassed her in retaliation, the lawsuit claimed.

In a statement Tuesday, Robustelli referenced her lawsuit and the “unfortunate workplace climate created by this and other illegal activities that transpired during my tenure.”

“I am hopeful that the matters now pending in the judicial system result in appropriate accountability and that civility, ethics, transparency and a sincere commitment to rebuild community trust returns to City Hall,” Robustelli said.

Azevedo has previously responded to the investigation with a series of bizarre and awkward comments, punctuated with repeated proclamations of innocence.

In media interviews, he has denied ever being with prostitutes or using drugs while on the summer 2023 trip to Vietnam, despite not being directly asked about anything like that. He said he only got massages while in Southeast Asia as part of a delegation that included the Duongs, Thao and other East Bay officials.

In late April, he called Andy Duong a “great guy” and longtime friend while speaking with ABC7 news. He said he wasn’t interested in retaining an attorney because it was “too expensive,” the news station reported.

When asked by ABC7 if there was any arrangement between him and Evolutionary Homes, Azevedo said, “I don’t remember nothing, there was no arrangement on that.”

“They shouldn’t have as much stuff on me, cause I didn’t do nothing,” Azevedo said at the time.

Staff writer Nate Gartrell contributed reporting.