{"id":352296,"date":"2026-06-08T23:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/352296\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T23:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:39:08","slug":"what-to-do-with-3-7m-recovered-from-andrew-do-scheme-oc-leaders-to-discuss-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/352296\/","title":{"rendered":"What to do with $3.7M recovered from Andrew Do scheme? OC leaders to discuss Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orange County\u2019s top elected leaders on Tuesday are set to discuss what to do with $3.7 million recovered from the Andrew Do corruption scheme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do is now serving a five-year sentence in federal prison after he admitted to accepting bribes in exchange for awarding millions in tax dollars meant to feed needy seniors and people with disabilities in his district.<\/p>\n

As part of the plea deal, Do acknowledged taking more than $800,000 in bribes through his two daughters, including a down payment on the house his youngest daughter Rhiannon Do later forfeited to resolve the criminal case. The scheme was first uncovered by LAist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Federal officials recovered money from seized bank accounts and two properties connected to Do\u2019s scheme \u2014 including the Tustin house his daughter bought<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n

If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n

The county Board of Supervisors is expected to publicly discuss plans for the recovered funds as they make decisions on the overall county budget at their meeting Tuesday<\/a>. Public comment will also be taken.<\/p>\n

What to do with the money?<\/p>\n

Ahead of Tuesday\u2019s discussion, Do\u2019s successor said the funds should support residents of his former district who were deprived by Do and his alleged co-conspirators.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past five years, every other district in Orange County has benefitted from the same community funds to support their cities, nonprofits, civic projects which strengthens their communities,\u201d Supervisor Janet Nguyen wrote in a mass email to constituents last week. \u201cHowever, our district went without because Do stole what belonged to our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis money was stolen from the First District, and it must come back to the First District,\u201d Nguyen added.<\/p>\n

Nguyen was Do\u2019s mentor and former boss more than a decade ago, before the two had a bitter falling out by 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She encouraged residents of her district to send letters to the board<\/a> and to speak during public comments.<\/p>\n

Several county supervisors told LAist they supported a similar approach, one in which the recovered money goes to support the original intended recipients: seniors and people with disabilities in Do\u2019s former district. Some supervisors have since advocated a broader view<\/a> of how they\u2019d want to use the money, noting that it was meant to address disruptions caused by the pandemic. Now that years have passed since the initial COVID-19 outbreak and lockdowns, some supervisors argue community needs have changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so many years on, and the problems that money originally was to address (mostly Covid impacts) are now behind us, that I think we should have a discussion about how and where to spend it,\u201d Supervisor Don Wagner told LAist via text message in March. \u201cThe budget is so tight and the needs so great across the county.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said he\u2019d work toward a fair distribution of the funds to best serve residents, with a focus on current needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will definitely consider what areas of the County were harmed by Do\u2019s scheme, but we must also remember that the funds were intended for relief efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, a threat we are no longer facing,\u201d he said in March. \u201cWe also need to consider addressing the current needs of residents with any dollars returned to the county.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millions more haven\u2019t been recovered, at least yet<\/p>\n

The amount of taxpayer money recovered so far is less than half of the $7.9 million Andrew Do admitted was diverted from specific meal contracts.<\/p>\n

In a lawsuit seeking to recover funds, the county alleges the total amount lost in the scheme was even larger: $13.25 million. The county\u2019s suit \u2014 scheduled for trial in November 2027 \u2014 covers all of the money Do gave to two nonprofits accused in the scheme, Viet America Society and Hand to Hand Relief Organization.<\/p>\n

How to reach me<\/p>\n

If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is ngerda.47.<\/p>\n

That leaves more than $4 million \u2014 and possibly much more \u2014 not yet recovered.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office noted they have an ongoing criminal case against Do\u2019s alleged co-conspirator Peter Pham.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssuming we obtain a conviction in that matter, we would expect to seek restitution,\u201d the spokesperson, Ciaran McEvoy, said.<\/p>\n

Pham left the country on a flight to Taiwan in late 2024 and remains a fugitive, according to McEvoy. The case against him also includes charges<\/a> against another alleged co-conspirator, Thanh Huong Nguyen, who led the Hand to Hand nonprofit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orange County\u2019s top elected leaders on Tuesday are set to discuss what to do with $3.7 million recovered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,2084,6702,143961,611],"class_list":["post-352296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-andrew-do","tag-board-of-supervisors","tag-corruption-scheme","tag-orange-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}