Leaders of CalOptima — Orange County’s health plan for the poor — found the agency lost $460,000 on a failed property deal connected to a county vendor and a former county supervisor in prison for bribery.
The probe came after former OC Supervisor Andrew Do, who also used to run CalOptima’s board, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for rerouting over $10 million worth of county contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
[Read: Former OC Supervisor Sentenced to 5 Years in Federal Prison in Bribery Scheme]
CalOptima started their own investigation into Do in September 2024 after officials received a report he’d manipulated a property sale agency staff spent over a year negotiating, with the agency hiring a law firm to look into the allegations.
Yet a year later, they say they can’t find any evidence Do did anything illegal in their limited investigation.
“We did not identify evidence suggesting that Mr. Do initiated or particularly championed the transaction, or that the offered price was necessarily not justified,” lawyers from the firm Bird & Marella wrote in their report.
Supervisor Andrew Do poses with the American flag during a groundbreaking ceremony on Dec. 8, 2021. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
Lawyers also noted their investigation lacked subpoena power or the ability to interview staff under oath, and that they weren’t able to find records of several closed door discussions, forcing them to rely on eyewitness accounts from two to three years ago.
They also noted there were various points where CalOptima staff ignored policies around disclosing closed door conversations to the public and failed to properly handle a multi-million dollar property sale.
“We did not discover evidence sufficient to prove that anyone acted with criminal intent,” lawyers wrote. “This is a very different inquiry, however, from the question of whether CalOptima should improve its policies and compliance with those policies. Those are business questions for the Board to consider in the proper context.”
A Fast-Paced Real Estate Proposal
In 2021, a Tustin property zoned for medical use was purchased for $18 million by a small LLC that listed Cuong Nguyen as its sole agent according to state and county property records.
At the time, state records show Nguyen was CEO of 360 Clinic, which was already in business with the county government as one of their COVID-19 testing vendors on a $5 million contract.
CalOptima leaders wanted to use the property for a PACE program, which is designed to help elderly residents.
CalOptima staff toured the property and decided to move forward with buying it, with board members signing off on a letter of intent to purchase the property in June 2022 during a closed door discussion.
However, they never got a chance to review the final sale agreement, which was signed exclusively by Do for a $29.5 million purchase in August, an $11 million price hike in less than a year according to the report.
“CalOptima employees facilitated the execution of the PSA on August 2, 2022, without obtaining “prior approval of the Board,” as required by CalOptima’s Purchasing policy and procedure for any real-estate transaction,” the lawyers wrote.
Veronica Carpenter, one of Do’s former top aides, and CEO Michael Hunn, who was hired while Do was chair of the board, were both listed among the staff members who worked on the deal.
CalOptima CEO, Michael Hunn, on Oct. 16, 2025. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
“While Ms. Carpenter and Mr. Hunn intentionally took steps to procure then-Chairman Do’s signature, we did not find evidence that they (or any other CalOptima employee, Board member, or advisor) thought about and intended to disobey CalOptima’s policy,” lawyers wrote.
There were also plans at the time for CalOptima to invest another $18 million in cleaning up the building and modernizing it so it could be used, according to Kelly Bruno, current executive director of Medi-Cal at CalOptima in a 2023 interview with Voice of OC.
Delays Stack Up, Costing Over Nearly Half a Million Dollars
After Do signed off on the escrow paperwork, the purchase hit a snag — the building wasn’t technically zoned for a PACE center to operate there alongside the recuperative care program staff also wanted to run there.
At the time, CalOptima leaders argued it would be a great facility for the community as they aimed to help the elderly and homeless people at the site.
“We are not changing a wall or door,” said CalOptima CEO Michael Hunn at a Tustin planning commission meeting in June 2023. “We want to move in as is, upgrade, and allow services to be provided for seniors.”
Their appeals were ultimately denied by the Tustin Planning Commission.
Over a year of appeals, CalOptima had to continue paying non-refundable deposits and escrow extension fees, totalling $460,000 according to the lawyer’s report.
CalOptima ultimately pulled out of the deal, and the building was later sold earlier this year for $19 million — $10 million less than what was offered to CalOptima — according to property records.
Questions Remain Around What Future Holds
The report did not examine any of Do’s other work at the agency, which has faced public questioning for years.
Do hasn’t served on CalOptima’s board since 2023, when he resigned after he was fined $12,000 for engaging in pay to play politics in an attempt to steer contracts to his campaign donors and a state audit called out the agency’s ballooning $1.2 billion stockpile of cash.
[Read: State Auditor Found $1.2 Billion Laying Around at OC’s Health Plan For the Poor]
County supervisors recently commissioned their own audit of over $4 billion spent while Do was on the board, but it’s unclear when that review will wrap up.
[Read: OC Supervisors Move Forward on Auditing Over $4 Billion After Bribery Scandal]
The original $5 million with 360 Clinic for pandemic testing services would also be part of that audit, according to the proposed scope of the audit.
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who sits on CalOptima’s board, said the report should drive changes to CalOptima’s policies and that several improvements had already been made.
“It also creates an awareness on the board to maintain continued strong oversight,” Sarmiento wrote in a Thursday statement. “The investigation shows our desire to ensure we investigate complaints fully.”
Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who replaced Do in the 2024 election, said she was still reviewing the report when asked for comment in a Thursday statement.
“Andrew Do had significant ethical and procedural failures during his term as CalOptima Board chairman, investigators found,” Nguyen wrote. “I am analyzing this report and will have more to say in the future.”
On Friday morning, Nguyen claimed the report fell short and that Do was trying to pit the county government and CalOptima against one another in a bidding war for the property.
“He is corrupt and oversaw the whole thing,” Nguyen wrote. “The report doesn’t go far enough when they have no subpoena power and no witnesses who were interviewed under oath.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that 360 Health Clinic was on track to operate its own PACE program at the Tustin property. While 360 Clinic did attempt to launch a PACE program, it was at an alternate site in Westminster. We regret the error.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
Related