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Politics Oct 22, 2024
Supervisor Andrew Do speaks at the Orange County board's meeting where members approved the creation of an office to assist immigrants and refugees. | Photo courtesy of Orange County
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Andrew Do has agreed to vacate his seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors and plead guilty to a bribery charge, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Do will plead guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, according to the U.S. Justice Department. He accepted over $550,000 in exchange for directing more than $10 million in COVID-19 relief funding to a charity connected with one of his daughters.
He is expected to make his first court appearance later this month in Santa Ana, prosecutors said. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
“We are thankful for the thorough and careful investigation carried out by federal law enforcement officials,” OC Board of Supervisors Chairman Don Wagner said in a statement. “Orange County residents have demanded answers and accountability. So has the board, taking several steps to address contracting and oversight practices. This indictment only speaks to the federal criminal investigation. The county remains committed to continuing its civil lawsuits in order to hold all responsible parties accountable and to recover misused public funds.”
As part of his plea agreement, Do admitted that in exchange for more than $550,000 in bribes beginning in 2020, he voted in favor of and directed millions of dollars in COVID-related funds to Viet America Society, a nonprofit organization affiliated with his daughter Rhiannon Do, according to the Justice Department. The District 1 supervisor directed and worked with other Orange County employees to approve contracts with and payments to VAS.
In the plea agreement the 62-year-old Do admitted that his actions were corrupt and abused his position of trust as a county supervisor, prosecutors said.
“By putting his own interests over those of his constituents, the defendant sold his high office and betrayed the public’s trust,” United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. “Even worse, the money he misappropriated and accepted as bribe payments was taken from those most in need — older adults and disabled residents. Our community deserved much better. Corruption has no place in our politics and my office will continue to hold accountable officials who cheat the public.”
OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer called Do “the fox in the hen house personified” for looting COVID funds.
“While millions of Americans were dying from COVID-19, Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do was … raiding millions in federal pandemic relief funds and orchestrating the money intended to feed elderly and ailing residents to instead fill the pockets of insiders, himself and his loved ones all while portraying a public persona of a hometown hero guiding his constituents through the uncertainty and fear of a global pandemic,” Spitzer said in a statement. “No one is above the law in Orange County and these charges should serve as a powerful warning to elected officials everywhere that actions have consequences and justice will be swift and it will be decisive.”
Federal prosecutors noted that shortly after VAS received COVID-related funds from the county government to provide meals for the elderly, the nonprofit from April 2021 to February 2024 paid a business identified in court documents as “Company #1” $100,000 or more each month, totaling about $3.8 million. In September 2021, VAS boosted its payments to Company #1 from $100,000 to $108,000 monthly. Company #1 then started paying Rhiannon Do $8,000 a month, which amounted to roughly $224,000 by February 2024.
Do acknowledged that in addition to the $8,000 monthly payments Company #1 had made to his daughter, in July 2023 Company #1 also moved $381,500 from the funds received from VAS to an escrow company, according to his plea agreement.
That same month Do’s daughter used money from the escrow account to buy a home in Tustin for nearly $1.04 million, prosecutors said. The home purchase involved a mortgage for more than $600,000 obtained by a loan application that contained false information and was accompanied by fabricated documents.
Do also admitted an additional $100,000 in payments sent to his other daughter — including three $25,000 checks from an air conditioning company that had been paid by VAS — were also bribes.
Some of the bribe money funneled to his daughters were spent for Do’s direct benefit, according to prosecutors. In 2022 Do paid property taxes with $14,849 of the illicit for properties in Orange County owned by Do and his wife. About $15,000 was used to pay one of his credit card bills.
Do knew that VAS was not fully meeting its obligation to provide meals for which the county had paid to assist seniors, prosecutors said.
“Instead, much of the funds were used for the benefit of insiders, including to buy real estate in the name of both Do’s daughter and Company #1, bribe payments to both of Do’s daughters, payments to other conspirators, payments to other companies affiliated with VAS’s listed officers, and through hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash withdrawals,” according to the Justice Department.
“Elected officials have a responsibility to implement programs and policy that will benefit all the people they serve,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement. “Their role is not to squander money, solicit bribes, or to steer funds to organizations or persons, wherein a coordinated effort allows those funds to make their way to family members or friends.”
The plea deal requires Do to relinquish any assets connected to the bribery scheme, including the Tustin property his daughter purchased in 2023, prosecutors said. As part of Rhiannon Do’s plea deal, she also agreed to forfeit the Tustin property. Do is now required to fully pay back the bribe money he and his daughters received, which he has agreed to pay in full before he is sentenced.
In August 2022, the authorities seized more than $2.4 million from VAS and Company #1’s bank accounts.
In an agreement with the OC DA’s Office, Do has agreed to immediately resign from the Board of Supervisors and forfeit any pension credit for the time period when he participated in the bribery conspiracy.
After the court receives Do’s guilty plea, he will face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
Orange County’s 1st District includes the cities of Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Midway City, Rossmoor, Seal Beach and Westminster. Do was the district’s supervisor since February 2015.
Authorities asked anyone with information related to the Do case or any other public corruption matter in Orange County to use the FBI’s email tip line tips.fbi.gov or call the FBI’s LA Field Office at 310-477-6565.
