Andrew Hoang Do, the District One Supervisor on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, has agreed to plead guilty to a felony federal charge for accepting more than $550,000 in bribes for directing more than $10 million in COVID funds to a charity affiliated with one of his daughters, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Do, 62, a former prosecutor married to Orange County Superior Court Assistant Presiding Judge Cheri Pham , agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and has resigned his powerful seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which is responsible for the county’s $9 billion annual budget.
As of Tuesday, Do also resigned and no longer represents the constituents of Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Midway City, Rossmoor, Seal Beach, and Westminster.
Investigative reporters for LAist uncovered Do’s misdirection of monies to a charity run by his daughter, U.C. Irvine law student Rhianna Do, without disclosing his connection to her. Rhianna Do ran the Warner Wellness Center, a doing business as name for the nonprofit Viet America Society, which was the recipient of millions in federal taxpayer money.
Federal investigators took note of the LAist reporting and opened an investigation, California’s Central Division U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said at a press conference in Orange County Tuesday. Do will “forfeit two properties, one in Santa Ana and one in Tustin, purchased by the pilfered money.” The confessed dirty pol will also forfeit his pension accrued from June 2020 when the scheme began, but will continue to collect taxpayer monies from his pension that began when he was voted into office.
“By putting his own interests over those of his constituents, the defendant sold his high office and betrayed the public’s trust,” Estrada said. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Do was acting like “the fox in a hen house personified” by “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.”