California Republican agrees to plead guilty in federal COVID investigation

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Orange County First District Supervisor Andrew Do agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery in federal court relating to a scheme involving Viet America Society and the embezzlement of millions in COVID-relief funds intended to help the county’s most vulnerable residents during the pandemic.

As part of his agreement, he resigned Tuesday from the Board of Supervisors.

United States Attorney Martin Estrada and OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced the agreement in a press conference Tuesday morning at the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana. It would be the first conviction of an Orange County supervisor in 50 years, Spitzer said, calling Do the “fox guarding the henhouse.”

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“Perhaps the most tragic in this entire case is the fact that the people he stole from, the money he took, was meant for those who were most vulnerable in our community,” Estrada said.

Some $9.3 million in federal COVID relief funds were granted to the nonprofit Viet America Society, mostly at the direction of Do from his First District discretionary funds, to provide meals to the county’s elderly and people with disabilities. Of that, only an estimated $1.4 million was spent on the meals, said the plea agreement.

Prosecutors criticized Do on Tuesday for concocting a story on social media about the meals programs providing 2,700 meals a week. Estrada said only 15% of the $9.3 million investigators have looked at went to feeding people during the pandemic.

Do admitted in his plea agreement that beginning in 2020 he received more than $550,000 in bribes to vote in favor of and direct millions in COVID-related funds to Viet America Society, where his daughter was hired as a condition of the bribery scheme. Do directed and worked with county employees to approve contracts with – and payments to – Viet America Society. Do further said in the plea agreement he acted corruptly and abused his position of trust as a county supervisor.

Do allocated the funding to Viet America Society without disclosing his daughter, Rhiannon, worked and held leadership roles for the group. Instead of the funding going to meal programs, Spitzer said the money “filled the pockets of insiders, (Do), and his loved ones, his family members.”

Estrada said Do’s daughter is cooperating with the investigation.

Rhiannon Do, a third-year law student, will enter a diversion agreement, admitting as part of her father’s plea agreement her conduct was criminal and violated federal and state law. Rhiannon Do, 23, could have been charged with mortgage fraud, perjury and making a false statement in writing, according to her diversion agreement. She will be required to continue going to school and will still be eligible to take the bar exam. She will be on federal probation for three years.

Read also: Andrew Do’s agreement to plead guilty comes after years of ethics allegations, violations

Do’s resignation ends any paycheck or benefits he was receiving from the county as a member of the board and Spitzer said Do has agreed to forfeit any pension accrued since the start of the scheme. He is expected to make his initial appearance in United States District Court in Santa Ana later this month.

Resignation letter from Supervisor Andrew Do to Supervisor Don Wagner, the chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. “Out of respect for the legal process, no statement is appropriate at this time,” Paul S. Meyer, attorney for Andrew Do, said in a statement. “However, it is appropriate to convey Andrew Do’s sincere apology and deep sadness to his family, to his constituents in District 1 and to his colleagues.”

Estrada said the charge carries a statutory maximum of five years in federal prison and “there’s a good likelihood” that the U.S. Attorney’s Office will pursue that prison term for Do.

There is no minimum prison length for Do outlined in the plea agreement, Estrada said.

Do has been publicly criticized for not disclosing his daughter’s involvement with the organization, but at the time, the lack of disclosure was not a violation of county policy or state law. New state laws were recently passed that tighten up reporting requirements.

According to a news release from the federal Department of Justice, this is how the scheme worked: Viet America Society received the pandemic relief funds and shortly after paid a business – not identified by name in the court filings – $100,000 per month, for a total of $3.8 million. Viet America Society in September 2021 increased its payments by $8,000 a month to the company. That company then started paying $8,000 monthly to Do’s daughter, Rhiannon, who by February 2024 collected $224,000.

In his plea agreement, Do admitted that in addition to the $8,000 monthly payments the company had made to his daughter, in July 2023, the firm also transferred $381,500 from the funds it had received from Viet America Society to an escrow company. In July 2023, Do’s daughter used the escrow account funds to purchase a home, in her name, in Tustin for $1,035,000. As part of that transaction, a mortgage for more than $600,000 was obtained by a loan application that contained false information, with fabricated documents, the news release said.

Andrew Do admitted that the $381,500 from the company used to purchase the Tustin house was a disguised bribe to him. He also admitted that an additional $100,000 in payments sent to his other daughter, including three $25,000 checks from a separate air conditioning company paid by Viet America Society, also were bribes to him, according to the Department of Justice.

Do further used some of the money funneled to his daughter – $14,849 – to pay property taxes on real estate owned by him and his wife, Orange County Superior Court Assistant Presiding Judge Cheri Pham. Another $15,000 was used to pay down one of Do’s credit card bills. Estrada declined to answer questions about whether Do’s wife was aware of the illegal activity and said the investigation is ongoing.

Estrada described the scheme “like Robin Hood in reverse.”

Do as part of his plea deal must forfeit any assets obtained through the bribery scheme and pay full restitution for what he and his daughters received before he is sentenced. Rhiannon Do also agreed to forfeit the Tustin house as part of her diversion agreement.

The government has seized more than $2.4 million from Viet America Society and the company that received funds from the nonprofit, officials said.

The case was investigated by the FBI; the Orange County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Office of the Inspector General; IRS Criminal Investigation; and the United States Department of Education Office of the Inspector General. It is being jointly prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office and Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

After the Viet America Society missed several deadlines to produce a federally required audit and other requested documentation of its spending, the county filed a civil lawsuit in August accusing the nonprofit and some of its leadership, including Do’s daughter, of embezzling the funds provided for the meals program and a Vietnam War memorial to instead use for personal benefit.

Do is not named in the lawsuit.

A week later, county and federal authorities raided a home Do owns in Tustin with his wife, as well as the homes of his daughter and other Viet America Society leaders.

Federal authorities have frozen the accounts of Viet America Society and some of its officers, and on Friday, Oct.18, a court ordered the same during the duration of the county’s civil lawsuit.

IRS Criminal Investigation Acting Special Agent in Charge Linda Nguyen said, “Unfortunately for Mr. Do, financial transactions leave a paper trail.” She added that Do’s “selfish and negligent” actions by exploiting his position of influence violated public trust.

The county’s lawsuit alleged six properties in Buena Park, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Tustin were purchased between August 2021 and May 2024 with the COVID-relief funds. One was the home purchased by Rhiannon Do.

Workers were recently seen moving furniture from that house into moving vans.

“Instead of serving as an example of what the American Dream can achieve, Andrew Do dragged his family and associates into an American nightmare,” Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley said in a statement. “I am disgusted by the staggering level of corruption, greed, and deception described in the federal indictments.

“Our tax dollars are not Monopoly money for powerful elected officials to use to enrich themselves and blatantly defraud our government,” she said. “Andrew Do and his enablers must pay the price for their crimes against the people of Orange County.”

In a statement, Board of Supervisors Chair Don Wagner, who represents the Third District, said the board is “taking several steps to address contracting and oversight practices.”

“This indictment only speaks to the federal criminal investigation,” he added. “The county remains committed to continuing its civil lawsuits in order to hold all responsible parties accountable and to recover misused public funds.”

As board chair, Wagner will be the caretaker of the First District office. A county spokesperson said this is the typical process when any board office becomes vacant. Do was termed out and the seat is on the November ballot. It will remain vacant until the winner is sworn in, the spokesperson said.

VietRISE, the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice and the Orange County Justice Fund had been calling for months for Do to resign, but said in a joint statement Tuesday that his stepping down is “insufficient response to the rampant corruption he has perpetuated while in office.”

“While we are encouraged by new state laws tightening the disclosure of how the Board of Supervisors spends public money, we call for restitution of the misappropriated funds to support the community it was meant to serve,” their statement said.

A one-time Orange County deputy district attorney, Do won a special election in early 2015 to the Board of Supervisors and then his first full term in 2016. He is the longest-serving supervisor among the current board members.

As a child, Do fled Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon. His former supervisor district includes Little Saigon.

After law school, Do taught at Cal State Fullerton and then served as a judge pro tem in Orange County West Municipal Court.

He previously served on the Garden Grove City Council.

“Supervisor Do, with all his experience and his education, concocted a public persona of a hometown hero who had achieved the American dream and was guiding his constituents through the uncertainty and fear of a global pandemic,” Spitzer said. “His dream of America has now become a nightmare for Orange County taxpayers, as greed and arrogance replaced the public servant that he had portrayed himself to be.”

In 2022, the California Fair Political Practices Commission fined Do $12,000 for a pay-to-play scheme involving two local lobbyists and for failing to report some contributions toward a statute at Mile Square Park.

Years earlier, the state Legislature passed a bill blocking Do’s ability to reconfigure the board of CalOptima, the $3.4 billion county health program, after he was denied the chairmanship.

“No one is above the law in Orange County,” Spitzer said. “Corruption of any kind will not be tolerated, and these charges should serve as a very powerful warning to all elected officials that their actions have consequences and justice will be swift and justice will be decisive.”

Staff writers Sean Emery and Erika I. Ritchie contributed to this report.

Originally Published: October 23, 2024 at 10:50 a.m.

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