The Explosive Dispute: Unpaid Wages, FBI Raids, and Corporate Fallout

Shortly before the FBI raided the homes of David Duong and his son Andy, as well as the offices of California Waste Solutions, the family had a bitter falling out with one of their business partners, Mario Juarez. The Duongs and Juarez had teamed up in a venture called Evolutionary Homes, a company that was aiming to build and sell modular housing units to local governments across California. A big part of the dispute between the Duongs and Juarez, according to newly surfaced records, were allegations that the Duongs failed to pay Mexican factory workers at Evolutionary Homes’ plant in Tijuana, Mexico.

On April 26, a Tijuana-based attorney named Diego Ivan Garcia Solis sent a letter to members of the Duong family, including David Duong, accusing them of failing to pay the wages of six workers in Tijuana. The workers, who were hired to design and assemble container homes for Evolutionary Homes, were owed $33,000 U.S. dollars.

Dispute Over Unpaid Wages

Garcia Solis wrote that failure to pay wages “constitutes a crime under Mexican law, and authorities have the power to initiate investigations accordingly.” Garcia Solis told the Duongs that they should pay the workers “in order to avoid any administrative, tax, and criminal misconduct before Mexican and American authorities.”

A spokesperson for the Duongs, Teresa Hoang, said in a statement that the allegations in Solis’ letter are false.

“Evolutionary Homes never entered into or authorized entry into any contracts in Mexico,” Hoang said. According to Hoang, Evolutionary Homes provided more than $1 million to Juarez and others to arrange for the construction of modular housing units, but the Duongs were not directly involved in the Mexican factory.

Leonardo Lopez Tirado, an attorney who works with Garcia Solis at the law firm Bufete Juridico Ortega Valenzuela & Asociados SC in Mexicali, Baja California, confirmed this week that his team is pursuing legal claims against the Duongs related to Evolutionary Homes. He said the Duongs did not respond to the letter Garcia Solis sent in April.

Evidence of Unpaid Wages

The letter helps explain the existence of a website called evolutionaryhome.com that was set up earlier this year. The site accuses David Duong of failing to pay the wages of workers in Mexico. The website is attributed to an attorney named Diego Chavez.

According to records obtained by The Oaklandside, the Mexican company that was handling Evolutionary Homes’ operations in Mexico was called Mario Robert Juarez Mexico, S. de RL CV, a limited liability company established by Juarez.

Investigations and Fallout

The Duongs haven’t been criminally charged but they appear to be subjects of interest in an ongoing federal investigation into corruption centered on Oakland.

Garcia Solis’ letter—along with other records obtained by The Oaklandside—offer new details about the business arrangement between the Duongs and Juarez. Evolutionary Homes was a small but ambitious company with plans to manufacture modular homes in Mexico and sell them across California. Over the past year and a half, they held meetings with multiple high-level government officials, but it all fell apart—including a squabble outside the company’s Oakland office—in the weeks leading up to the FBI raids.

Evolving Business Plans

The Duongs and Juarez set up Evolutionary Homes in 2022 with the goal of persuading local governments to use COVID relief dollars or other funds to purchase shipping container homes as temporary shelters for unhoused residents. The company had been certified by the state to produce factory-built housing, making its units legal to install in California cities.

The city of Oakland had explored building temporary homes on the former Oakland Army Base—but ultimately never moved forward with this idea. Evolutionary Homes also tried to sell their shipping container homes to Alameda County and Santa Clara County officials.

Challenges Faced

Evolutionary Homes also tried their luck with Alameda County, according to public records. On June 1, 2023, Supervisor Nate Miley emailed county housing staff asking about their availability to attend a presentation from Mario Juarez on “modular housing for homeless and other vulnerable populations as well as worker housing.”

Alameda County Housing and Community Development Department Director Michelle Starratt told Miley in an email that her office receives numerous meeting requests from modular housing vendors, but that Alameda County