FREMONT – This city may soon join other California cities in stepping up raids on homeless people living in encampments and vehicles following recent orders from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The Fremont City Council, which represents the Bay Area’s fourth-largest city, last week discussed the potential for changing city policy a 72-hour parking restriction for residents on city streets, a possible “oversized vehicle parking ban” for RVs parked in residential areas, and a ban on camping on public property. The council also discussed options for a everlasting ban on RVs near schools, educational institutions and churches.

Other major cities within the Bay Area have taken similar measures and made national headlines for using more aggressive methods to clear homeless encampments. San Francisco Mayor London Breed began ordering the clearance of homeless encampments this summer. The cities took motion at Newsom's direction after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave local authorities more power to clear homeless encampments. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao announced on Monday that town would crack down on in warehouses subject to fireplace, water or road hazards.

Newsom had previously stated that local governments that didn’t deliver results would face cuts in state funding.

Amy Huston, a homeless woman who lives in an encampment at Osgood Road and Washington Boulevard, was upset when she heard town was planning to tighten restrictions on camping. If town cleared her encampment, she wouldn't know where to go next, she said. Currently, city employees stop on the encampment weekly to select up trash, deliver hygiene products and supply other services.

“There’s nothing I can do,” said Huston, 44, who has lived there for 2 years.

The city last cleared the camp on July 9, but on Friday at the least just a few dozen residents remained in a tent camp with shopping carts, cooking equipment and other belongings. As a stray cat named “Whitey” roamed near the camp's fence, Huston recalled how she dreamed of becoming a veterinarian before she became homeless.

“Everyone is getting along. It's nice,” Huston said. “There are places to go out here. We just don't know if it's safe or not.”

According to essentially the most recent study on the homeless population, town reported this yr that the variety of The variety of homeless people in Fremont fell by 21 percent. which is consistent with a nationwide trend. But that got here after Fremont's homeless population doubled between 2019 and 2022, from 608 homeless people to 1,026, based on the Point-in-Time Count, a state census used to measure homelessness.

At last Tuesday's council meeting, Vice Mayor Desrie Campbell questioned city staff in regards to the encampment where Huston lives, wondering if residents could be offered everlasting or temporary housing. She asked if town could implement everlasting street parking bans throughout Fremont.

Housing manager Lucia Hughes told Campbell that “outreach teams” repeatedly come to the encampment and offer residents various things, comparable to possible housing services. City Attorney Rafael E. Alvarado added that unless the City Council desires to implement everlasting parking bans on certain city streets, it’s inevitable that homeless residents will “come back.”

“What is being considered here is consistent with what many cities are doing,” Alvarado said.

Mayor Lily Mei said she agreed with Campbell that parking bans were vital and said they may lead to safer streets.

“Some of these have to be permanent,” Mei said.

Councilwoman Teresa Cox stays concerned that there be no encampments at school districts and playgrounds, saying she fears that “many people are not having background checks done when dealing with children and families.”

City Councilor Raj Salwan said town should take a “balanced” approach to the homeless problem, but added: “We definitely need the consent of the community.”

“Homelessness is not a crime,” Salwan said at Tuesday's council meeting. “These are the people who are here. If we try to drive them away from one place, they will just go to another place.”

The City Council could discuss the brand new protocols again as early as next month, nevertheless it is unclear once they may very well be officially implemented.

By Kathleen Ditton, Joe Roetz, Rubén Rosario | WSVN

MIAMI, Florida – A 20-year-old man and his accomplice have been charged with conspiracy to steal and launder greater than $230 million value of cryptocurrency. Federal authorities said the arrests were related to an FBI raid on a Miami mansion.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 20-year-old Malone Lam of Miami and Los Angeles and 21-year-old Jeandiel Serrano of Los Angeles were arrested Wednesday evening.

The federal government's indictment states that the duo, together with others, orchestrated cryptocurrency thefts and laundered the proceeds through exchanges and mixing services.

A user of X, the social media platform formerly often known as Twitter, uncovered the moment Lam allegedly received greater than $230 million in stolen bitcoins from a victim in Washington, DC.

The indictment states that the suspects “used the illegally obtained cryptocurrency to purchase international travel, nightclub services, numerous luxury cars, watches, jewelry and designer handbags, and to pay for rental apartments in Los Angeles and Miami.”

The duo is accused of showing off at parties, including one which was videotaped, and showing off luxury cars and designer handbags.

Lam, a Singaporean national who goes by the web pseudonyms “Anne Hathaway” and “$$$,” and Serrano, who goes by the names “VersaceGod” and “@SkidStar,” are alleged to have accessed victims’ accounts in Washington, DC, in August and transferred cryptocurrencies into their possession, including over 4,100 of the victim’s bitcoins.

But on Wednesday evening, all of it got here to an abrupt end when FBI agents raided a mansion near Northeast 83rd Street and twelfth Avenue, near North Bayshore Drive, south of Miami Shores.

“I thought they were fireworks,” said one resident.

On Thursday evening, FBI officials confirmed that the arrests of Lam and Serrano were related to this raid.

Smoke poured out of the mansion as federal authorities raided the property through the day and investigated into the night.

7News cameras caught federal agents combing every inch of the property.

Miami City Police said they assisted FBI agents in Wednesday's raid.

Neighbors have been wondering what happened, and now there’s a solution.

“We are all leaving at the same time, so it will be peaceful for everyone tonight,” said one resident.

Lam and Serrano were scheduled to look in U.S. district courts in Florida and California on Thursday.

Click here for the most recent information on this story.

The-CNN-Wire
& © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery company. All rights reserved.

OAKLAND — The offices on the Port of Oakland that FBI and IRS agents searched last week were home not only to the Duong family's recycling business but in addition to an unknown home builder who links the influential family to a political official whose checkered past includes controversial campaign tactics.

Evolutionary Homes LLC, which sells homes produced from shipping containers, is much less well-known in Oakland than its owners' other company, California Waste Solutions. The Embarcadero suite utilized by the businesses was considered one of 4 addresses raided by federal agents on June 20. The homes of David Duong, Andy Duong and Mayor Sheng Thao were also searched as a part of a surprise investigation.

Both corporations are owned and operated by the Duongs, Vietnamese business leaders and political donors who’ve been accused for years of organizing an illegal campaign donation scheme in Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

It's unclear whether Evolutionary Homes is the topic of the federal government's investigation — no arrests or charges against anyone have been announced to date. But state business records show that the Duongs worked with Mario Juarez, a two-term candidate for Oakland City Council whose recent campaign dealings have caught the eye of Alameda County prosecutors and the state's political watchdog.

In a shocking turn of events, Juarez was attacked within the Evolutionary Homes constructing — considered one of two attacks, including a shooting at his home within the weeks before the June 20 raids, in line with his attorney and authorities. He suffered “serious” injuries within the attack at 1211 Embarcadero in early May, his attorney, Ernie Castillo, confirmed Friday. Juarez was later confronted by gunfire at his home within the 1800 block of Fruitvale Avenue on June 9, authorities said. He was unharmed and no arrests were announced.

“These were definitely attempts to murder Mario,” Castillo said in an interview.

Even though Evolutionary Homes lists only six employees on its website, the little-known home builder's worker list appears to have a large political reach.

One of the staffers listed, Cesley Frost, is the interim chief of staff for Alameda County Councilwoman Lena Tam. Two other staffers listed are married political consulting team Julie and Chris Wedge, who each worked for Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan for several years, with Julie serving as her chief of staff and campaign manager. This yr, they were the treasurers of Juarez's campaign for a seat on the county's Democratic Central Committee, in line with campaign documents. The Wedges didn’t reply to a request for comment.

The couple's time at Kaplan began two years after Mayor Thao worked at Kaplan along with her partner, former Chief of Staff Andre Jones.

Both Thao and Kaplan have received campaign contributions from the Duongs — including donations that local and state regulators have deemed potentially fraudulent. Investigators suspect the cash was funneled through obscure third-party corporations to avoid donation limits.

The Oakland Public Ethics Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission's investigations into the alleged “straw donor schemes” – which, in line with documents, involved tens of hundreds of dollars in money – should not yet complete, in line with the regulators.

Attempts by this news organization to succeed in the listed Evolutionary Homes officials and Kaplan this week were unsuccessful.

Responding to an issue about Evolutionary Homes on Thursday, Supervisor Tam said in a text message: “I do not know the company you mentioned and believe it no longer exists.” She added that her chief of staff “never worked for the Duongs or their partner companies” and was merely a “friend of Andy Duong.”

A spokesman for the Duongs declined to reply questions on the container home-based business and as a substitute provided the one statement released on behalf of the family since last week's raids.

In it, the Duongs claimed they were “very surprised” by the FBI's searches and stressed that they’d cooperate with the investigation. The statement stressed that the family has been based within the Bay Area for 4 many years and that they’ve built relationships with people and businesses “everywhere.”

“We believe we have not been involved in or committed any illegal activities and await the decision of law enforcement,” said the statement from Teresa Hoang, an executive with the Vietnamese American Business Association. “In the meantime, CWS will continue to proudly provide recycling services to countless communities throughout the Bay Area.”

In videos posted to YouTube in December, Juarez boasted about Evolutionary Homes' mission to supply much-needed housing for homeless women and kids. The one-bedroom, one-bath modular homes — which appear to be shipping containers — cost nearly $300,000 each and include a kitchen and washer and dryer system, the corporate's website says.

“The housing we provide is beautiful,” Juarez said within the video produced by the Vietnamese American Business Association, a company with close ties to the Duong family. Juarez added that the homes were “built around the idea that we wanted to inspire people to be better.”

A month after his appearance within the video, Juarez bumped into legal trouble.

In January, Alameda County prosecutors charged Juarez with one count of aggravated voter fraud stemming from election mail-ins that Juarez allegedly orchestrated against Thao's most important political rival – mayoral candidate Loren Taylor – in the course of the final 10 days of the 2022 mayoral race. His attack ads also targeted mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente and former Mayor Libby Schaaf.

Prosecutors say Juarez ordered the flyers from an Oakland unsolicited mail company by writing checks for nearly $53,600 that bounced because he had lower than $215 in his checking account on the time, court records show. He has since pleaded not guilty. Juarez couldn’t be reached for comment, but his attorney called his client innocent and called the costs “politically motivated and deplorable.”

The Fair Political Practices Commission is currently investigating the emails after Juarez ignored warnings that he had not filed disclosure forms detailing the origin of his money, as required by state law.

It was the newest twist in a profession of great entrepreneurial ambitions and various financial worries for Juarez.

At various times over the past few many years, he founded or led corporations focused on debt collection, entertainment, clean energy and real estate – a lot of which now not exist.

At the identical time, county records show that regulators filed at the least $96,000 in state and federal tax liens against him since 2015. At least three of the state liens were still outstanding as of this week, while the status of a $79,000 federal lien was unclear. He also needed to give up his real estate license in 2015 amid allegations of illegal business practices.

Recent government documents suggest the Duongs can have gained greater control over the corporate and its leadership. The 2023 and 2024 documents list David Duong for the primary time, while Juarez's name disappeared from California Department of State records.

Nevertheless, Juarez continued to function a spokesperson for Evolutionary Homes through at the least the top of 2023, appearing in videos published online to stipulate a vision for the corporate's future.

“Many government agencies are interested in doing business with us,” Juarez said, indicating that arrangements have already been made. “And I think that has a lot to do with us talking about business with the government.”