6 questions we still have after disgraced former OC Supervisor Andrew Do’s sentencing

Former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do will be headed to the low-security Federal Correctional Institution Lompoc in Santa Barbara County in late summer. He was sentenced Monday to five years in prison on a bribery charge for receiving kickbacks from county contracts meant to pay for meals for needy seniors — a scandal uncovered by an LAist investigation and subsequent federal probe.

Is this the end of the story for Do and the corruption scandal surrounding his time at the pinnacle of the county’s power structure? No. Here’s a shortlist of questions that remain unanswered:

1. Will taxpayers get their money back?

During Monday’s sentencing, Judge James Selna called for a hearing in August to determine the amount of restitution owed from the bribery scheme. The judge said Do and his daughter Rhiannon Do, who received hundreds of thousands in kickbacks from Do’s co-conspirators, will be jointly liable for repaying the restitution.

In Do’s initial plea agreement signed last October, both sides agreed that the restitution was “more than $550,000 and less than approximately $750,000 but recognize and agree that this amount could change based on facts that come to the attention of the parties prior to the sentencing.” The agreement calls for the money to be paid to the U.S. Treasury.

However, attorneys for Orange County, which Selna identified in court as “the only victim” of Do’s crime, say Orange County taxpayers should get over $11 million back from Do. That would cover the following, the county argued in a recent court filing:

• $10.3 million in contracts the county awarded to Viet America Society, known as VAS, whose leaders are among Do’s alleged co-conspirators, mostly for meals to feed seniors. Only 15% of the money for meals was used for its intended purpose, according to Do’s plea agreement. The sum also includes a $1 million county contract with Viet America Society to build a Vietnam War memorial in Fountain Valley, which was never completed.
• $800,000 the county says it has spent so far trying to recover the money, by supporting the federal criminal case and by filing its own civil lawsuit against Andrew Do, Rhiannon Do, VAS founder Peter Anh Pham and other alleged co-conspirators.

The judge set a hearing on the restitution question for Aug. 11.

Separately, the county is seeking to recoup funds through its civil lawsuits: against Do, VAS and its leaders, and against Hand to Hand Relief Organization, a group that subcontracted with VAS.

2. What’s the status of the county’s civil lawsuits?

The county’s civil lawsuits against Do and his alleged co-conspirators are pending in San Diego Superior Court. Mark Rosen, a lawyer for VAS, Pham, and VAS’s chief financial officer, Dinh Mai, has refuted the allegations in the suit and argued that his clients can’t be forced to testify in the case, under the Fifth Amendment, because they’re facing, or could face, separate, criminal prosecution.

The judge in that civil case agreed to pause much of the fact-finding phase of the lawsuit until June 27, when a hearing is scheduled to decide whether to extend that pause. The judge is also expected to rule at that hearing on Rosen’s effort to get the case dropped against his clients. In a recent filing, Rosen claimed the county didn’t have enough evidence to proceed in its civil suit against VAS and its leaders, and was “trying to turn an accounting dispute into a fraud case.”

Then Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, at right, with Viet America Society founder Peter Pham in a video posted by Do’s official YouTube account.

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Then-Supervisor Andrew Do, screenshot via YouTube

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3. Will Peter Pham be brought to justice?

Pham, the Viet America Society founder, was indicted last Friday on 15 counts, including bribery, concealment of money laundering, and wire fraud. Prosecutors described him as "a friend and associate" of Andrew Do.

But Pham is considered a fugitive. Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney, told LAist that Pham had left the U.S. on a one-way ticket to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, in December 2024. McEvoy said he had no knowledge of Pham leaving the island nation since departing the U.S.

The U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Taiwan, meaning it has no formal mechanism for requesting the return of a person, like Pham, facing criminal charges in the U.S. That doesn’t necessarily mean Taiwan wouldn’t honor a warrant from Interpol, the international law enforcement cooperation group. McEvoy said a warrant had not yet been issued for Pham “but we expect one will be issued,” he wrote in an email to LAist.

Meanwhile, one of Pham’s alleged co-conspirators, Thanh Huong Nguyen, was arraigned on Monday in Santa Ana and pleaded not guilty.

4. Will Rhiannon Do be allowed to practice law?

Rhiannon Do, Andrew Do’s youngest daughter, was getting monthly $8,000 checks for her purported work for Viet America Society from September 2021 until January 2023. During that time, she was a full-time law student at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. She graduated in May.

As part of a “package deal” with her father’s plea agreement, Rhiannon Do admitted to filing a falsified mortgage application that disguised her use of taxpayer dollars to purchase a $1 million house in Tustin. She did not face criminal charges. Instead, the agreement called for her to be placed on three years’ probation through a pretrial diversion program, and to continue going to school, including studying for the State Bar exam, or find work.

She still faces allegations of fraud in the county’s civil lawsuit, and she’s jointly liable for paying restitution in her father’s criminal case as a “co-participant,” according to Judge Selna’s sentencing order.

If Rhiannon Do wants to practice law in California, she has to pass what’s known as a “moral character” review with the State Bar. The Bar advises students to submit their application early on in their final year of law school. The Bar has not yet responded to questions from LAist about whether Rhiannon Do has submitted her application.

When deciding whether to grant a law license despite prior misconduct by an applicant, the Bar takes into consideration the severity of the misconduct, whether there was more than one act, and whether there were any rehabilitation efforts, among other factors.

Lawrence Rosenthal, a professor at Chapman University Fowler School of Law and a former federal prosecutor, said the State Bar can interview Rhiannon Do and investigate her role in her father’s misdeeds. But he worries the Bar won’t have access to the government’s evidence against her, which could corroborate the allegations or clear Rhiannon Do of wrongdoing.

“Ms. Do would certainly be entitled to take the position that these are just allegations,” Rosenthal said. “She could say, ‘My father told me this was all on the up and up and I believed him.’”

McEvoy, the U.S. Attorney spokesperson, declined to respond to a question emailed by LAist about whether U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli would make sure the State Bar has access to evidence of Rhiannon Do's alleged criminal conduct.

5. Will anyone else be charged?

There are several people named in the county’s civil lawsuits who have not yet faced criminal charges, including Dinh Mai, the chief financial officer of Viet America Society, and Thu Thao Thi Vu, president of Aloha Financial Investment.

Aloha and its now-shuttered Perfume River restaurant, in Westminster, are described by the county, and by the federal government in its recent indictment of Pham, as pass-through firms that VAS allegedly used to divert taxpayer money for personal gain, including for the down payment on Rhiannon Do’s Tustin home. An LAist investigation also found that Vu was listed as a co-buyer on that home.

The U.S. Attorney’s indictment of Pham also alleges that a former chief of staff of Do “would edit the terms of contracts and beneficiary agreements [with Viet America Society and Hand to Hand Relief Organization] to make them more favorable to defendants Pham and Nguyen.” In exchange, authorities allege, the chief of staff’s fiancée and later wife “was paid tens of thousands of dollars for ‘consulting services’ by Pham and Nguyen.

A previous LAist investigation found that Josie Batres, the wife of Do’s former chief of staff Chris Wangsaporn, was paid by Viet America Society for consulting work in 2020 and 2021. LAist also found that Batres was paid $275,000 in taxpayer funds by a different nonprofit, Be Well OC, for work that was never turned in. After LAist published the story, county health officials demanded the nonprofit refund the money, which they did in November. Wangsaporn resigned from his position at the Board of Supervisors two days after LAist published the investigation.

6. Will there be further investigation into potential corruption?

Yes. There are at least two probes underway into contracts handled by Do at county agencies over the years:

• CalOptima, Orange County’s low-income health insurance provider, has hired an outside firm to audit transactions approved while Do was on their board. 

• The Orange County Board of Supervisors is also preparing to hire an outside firm to conduct a widespread forensic audit focused on contracts that awarded pandemic relief funds. 

And there could be more. LAist has identified several taxpayer transactions approved under Do’s supervision that have raised concerns among local officials. These include the county’s contract with the firm 360 Clinic to provide COVID-19 testing during the pandemic, and a property deal signed by Do when he was chair of the CalOptima board that would have awarded extraordinary profits to a pair of prominent local businessmen.

Terry Rains, a Westminster resident and local government watchdog who was in court Monday for Do’s sentencing, told LAist she hopes local and federal officials will continue to investigate alleged corruption surrounding the once-powerful politician.

“I’m glad we got the max allowed for this charge and I’m not convinced it’s over yet,” she said.