A California county leader on Tuesday was removed from his committee assignments and regional board positions after allegations that he helped funnel millions in pandemic relief funding into a nonprofit run by his daughter.
On Aug. 15, Orange County sued Viet America Society, Do’s daughter, Rhiannon Do, and others who served as officers of the nonprofit, which is dedicated to Vietnamese culture and community services, months after LAist first reported that the organization had not submitted audits showing how it had spent the money. The county’s lawsuit alleges that Rhiannon Do and other officers used the money as if it were from their own “personal banking accounts” and accuses the nonprofit’s officers of purchasing property with it.
Katrina Foley (D), an Orange County supervisor who has demanded Do’s resignation, said the board will consider an item to censure him at its next meeting on Sept. 24.
“He has completely eroded public trust,” Foley said. “We cannot have him representing us on behalf of our board.”
Do, whose term ends in January, did not attend Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting, and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Attorneys for Rhiannon Do and Viet America Society also did not respond to requests for comment.
Asked for comment on the case Tuesday, a spokesperson for Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer (R) said the office was involved in an investigation with federal agencies, but declined to answer further questions.
In a statement on Aug. 22, Spitzer’s office said it had executed search warrants but declined to comment on the nature of the investigation, citing a “sealing order by the court.” That day, federal investigators searched the homes of Do, his daughter and his wife, LAist reported.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in the central district of California on Tuesday said the search warrants were still sealed but declined to comment further.
The county’s lawsuit was moved to San Diego because Do’s wife, Cheri Pham, is a judge in Orange County.
Concerns about the money began years ago, Foley said, as Orange County employees were reviewing contracts between the county and nonprofits regarding pandemic relief funding. The contracts included money given under the 2020 Cares Act and the 2021 American Rescue Plan, federal stimulus packages intended to boost the economy during the pandemic.
Between 2020 and 2023, the county entered into several contracts with Viet America Society, allocating millions for the nonprofit to provide meals to seniors and residents with disabilities in Orange County, according to the lawsuit.
The county also granted a $1 million contract in September 2023 for the nonprofit to construct and maintain a Vietnam War memorial at a park in Orange County, which has one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the United States. The memorial was one of many projects dedicated to the county’s Vietnamese community that Do publicly championed last year.
But Viet America Society never completed the memorial, the county alleged in its lawsuit. It also accused the nonprofit of giving county officials “inflated” and “fraudulent” information when asked about the meals it was supposed to be delivering to vulnerable residents.
At one point, Viet America Society claimed to have served 20,000 meals per month with the money from one of the contracts — twice the number that was required under the agreement, according to the lawsuit. When county officials pressed the nonprofit, it revised its report to say it had served 10,000 meals per month, “without justification or supporting documentation,” the lawsuit alleged.
Instead of using funds for the county’s “most vulnerable populations,” the lawsuit states, the nonprofit and its officers “brazenly plundered these funds for their own personal gain.”
In a statement last month following the county’s lawsuit and news of the search warrants, VietRISE and the Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice — organizations focused on immigrant communities in Orange County — also called for Do’s resignation.
Do, the groups wrote, had misused funding that was “intended to help our senior community members survive.”
“Residents continue to face skyrocketing rents, evictions, and homelessness, yet Supervisor Do used his position to divert taxpayer dollars toward million-dollar properties for his own family and friends,” the statement said.
Vicente Sarmiento (D), an Orange County supervisor who has called for Do’s resignation alongside Foley, said in a statement Tuesday that it was “outrageous that these funds possibly did not reach Orange County residents that desperately needed the help.” He introduced the Sept. 24 item to vote on censuring Do.
“We must continue the process of getting to the truth of how the funds were used and pursue all legal remedies needed to recover any misspent funds,” Sarmiento said.
