Southern California official resigns and will plead guilty in COVID funds probe

Associated Press

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A high-ranking elected official in Orange County, California, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery as part of a scheme involving a charity and the misuse of COVID-19 relief funds, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes as he helped ensure that money went to an organization that claimed to be feeding elderly and disabled people, federal authorities said. The group instead used much of the funds to buy real estate, officials said.

Do, a Republican, resigned his position on the board for the county of 3 million people, effective immediately.

“Mr. Do unequivocally broke the trust of the public,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said during a news conference with federal prosecutors.

Paul S. Meyer, an attorney for Do, declined to issue a statement out of respect for the legal process. “However, it is appropriate to convey Andrew Do’s sincere apology and deep sadness to his family, to his constituents in District One and to his colleagues,” Meyer wrote in an email.

The case comes after a long-running investigation into the organization Viet America Society, where Do’s daughter, Rhiannon Do, was listed as an officer. Orange County, which is between Los Angeles and San Diego, filed a civil lawsuit this year saying the group misused funds received during the pandemic to feed elderly and disabled people, instead spending the money to buy real estate.

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said Andrew Do signed an agreement to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with the scheme, and received more than $500,000 in payments for his role. While Andrew Do helped assign the funds to the meals program starting in 2020 and publicly touted the program’s benefits to the community, only 15% of the more than $9 million funneled to Viet America Society was used for that stated purpose, Estrada said.

“The scheme essentially functioned like Robin Hood in reverse,” Estrada said. “Mr. Do and his conspirators stole money from the poor to give to themselves — and this money was intended to provide meals to the people who needed them most in our community.”

Federal authorities seized $2.4 million in connection with the probe, and Andrew Do agreed to forfeit any interest in that money and two homes in Orange County, Estrada said.

Do will appear in federal court to enter a plea, but a date for that hearing has not yet been determined, Estrada said.

Estrada declined to answer reporters’ questions about whether Do’s wife, who is a judge in Orange County, was implicated in the scheme. Estrada said the investigation was ongoing.

Supervisor Katrina Foley said she was “disgusted by the staggering level of corruption, greed, and deception described in the federal indictments.”

“Andrew Do and his enablers must pay the price for their crimes against the people of Orange County,” Foley said in a statement Tuesday.

Andrew Do was a Vietnamese refugee who went on to become a prosecutor and city councilmember before winning a seat to represent the county’s 1st District residents on the five-person board of supervisors. The 1st District covers a cluster of communities including surf-friendly Huntington Beach.