Millions are returned to taxpayers after judge finalizes forfeit of assets tied to OC corruption scandal

Millions of dollars are being returned to taxpayers after a federal judge finalized orders this week forfeiting money and property connected to the corruption scheme of former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do — including a house bought by his daughter.

The judge’s orders come more than a year-and-a-half after an LAist investigation began reporting serious questions about pandemic-era contracts directed by Do to a newly-created nonprofit group.

Judge James V. Selna issued his decision Monday, a week after he sentenced Do to five years in prison. It immediately transfers ownership to the federal government of $2.4 million in bank accounts and two properties in Orange County connected to the scheme. In ordering the assets forfeited, Selna found that Do had a financial interest in them.

The order requires that the two properties be sold. Federal prosecutors say their goal is to return money from those sales to the county to be used as it sees fit. An LAist investigation and federal probe led Do to resign and plead guilty last fall to a conspiracy to steal millions of taxpayer dollars meant to feed needy seniors and people with disabilities.

What was forfeited?

Here are the assets whose ownership the court ordered immediately transferred to the federal government:

• $1,702,630.86 from a bank account of Viet America Society, the nonprofit at the center of the Do scheme.
• $724,749.10 in a bank account of Aloha Financial Investment, Inc., a real estate company that Do admitted was used to route meal funds into bribes through his two daughters.
• A commercial property in Santa Ana that Aloha Financial Investment purchased for $1.1 million in an apparent all-cash transaction in 2023.
• A house in unincorporated Tustin that Do’s younger daughter, Rhiannon Do, purchased for $1.035 million in 2023, using $385,000 from Aloha Financial Investment. (The lender of the $621,000 mortgage would get paid out remaining principal on the loan once the home sells, before the federal government gets its proceeds.)

Selna ruled that anyone occupying the two properties must leave within two weeks. If they don’t, he wrote that federal agents can remove them and their belongings without needing any further orders from the court.

It’s unclear whether the properties are currently occupied. Rhiannon Do was seen by a neighbor at the home in unincorporated Tustin when federal agents searched it last August.

Money could be returned to the county

Community members have reached out to LAist over the past few months to ask what will happen with the seized funds and property. Several have wondered if it will be used to serve the seniors and disabled people in Andrew Do’s former district who were denied meal services because of the corruption scheme.

LAist asked the federal prosecutors’ office on Tuesday what will happen to the funds.

“The government will proceed to sell the real properties and then make an official request to the DOJ’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) that the forfeited funds be either restored or remitted to the victim, the County of Orange,” wrote Ciaran McEvoy, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.

LAist asked if that request would include limiting how the county could use the funds.

“Whatever O.C. decides to use the funds for, that will be up to them,” McEvoy responded.

What would the county do with the money?

LAist reached out to all five county supervisors, and heard back from four. Decisions on how to spend county funds is up to the supervisors, usually on a majority vote.

Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who succeeded Do as 1st District supervisor, said the funds should serve the constituents who were deprived of services.

“I’ve always stated that the funds need to go back to serve the people that it was stolen from, and that is the 1st District,” Nguyen told LAist. “We need to make them whole. We have lots of needs. We will assess those needs. And I want to put the funds back to the district.”

Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said any funds returned to the county should benefit the most needy residents. He represents Santa Ana, a largely low-income city that was in Do’s district until redistricting maps took effect in early 2022. That means Sarmiento’s constituents were among those who lost out on meals when those funds were stolen. “The intended purpose of the funds in question was to benefit vulnerable residents,” Sarmiento said in a statement.

“Ideally, I would like to see us look at the current needs of our most vulnerable residents,” he said, “whether that be food insecurity, housing, or healthcare, see where the highest needs are, and use those funds accordingly.”

Supervisor Katrina Foley said she thinks it’s “great news” that federal prosecutors want the funds returned to the county. She wants the money to reimburse the county’s costs for audits, accounting and staff time to address the corruption scheme, as well as go toward food for Do’s former constituents to help backfill cuts to the SNAP nutrition program.

“For sure, the funds should benefit the people that were intended to benefit from the meal program,” Foley told LAist. “We’re seeing budget cuts to the SNAP program, so this would be an opportunity to backfill so that the people who were supposed to benefit from these funds don’t see another hit to their community.”

Supervisor Don Wagner noted that the money “was stolen from District 1 discretionary funds.”

In a text message to LAist, Wagner said the fairest approach is probably to let Nguyen, as the 1st District supervisor, “assess her district needs and see if there are places to put the money to benefit the district as originally intended.”

“The board, per our new rules, would have more oversight in that spending and might look for a broader use, but I would consider giving District 1 [Supervisor Janet Nguyen] first crack at a spending plan.”

What about the rest of the money admitted to be stolen?

It remains unclear whether the government will recover the rest of the $7.9 million in meal funds Andrew Do admitted was diverted from serving needy seniors. McEvoy declined to comment.

A civil lawsuit by the county seeks to recover remaining funds by getting a state court judge to seize other properties purchased in recent years by people accused of involvement in the corruption scheme.

Separately, Selna has scheduled a hearing for Aug. 11 to determine the amount of restitution owed to taxpayers. He has said Andrew Do and his daughter Rhiannon Do will be "jointly liable" for paying the money back. Rhiannon Do admitted she was involved in the scheme and violated four criminal laws when purchasing the home, as part of a diversion deal that prevents prosecution. Rhiannon Do graduated from UC Irvine School of Lawl last month, according to the university. Her diversion agreement with prosecutors, which avoids criminal charges, allows her to study for the bar exam that’s required to become an attorney.

Andrew Do is required to report to federal prison in Santa Barbara County by Aug. 15. Selna handed down the maximum sentence allowed in Do’s plea deal.

Catch up on the investigation

In November 2023, LAist began investigating how millions in public taxpayer dollars were spent. In total, LAist has uncovered public records showing more than $13 million in public money that was approved to a little-known nonprofit that records state was led on and off by Rhiannon Do. Most of that money was directed to the group by Supervisor Do outside of the public’s view and never appeared on public meeting agendas. He did not publicly disclose his family ties.

Much of the known funding came from federal coronavirus relief money.

• Read the story that launched the investigation: Top OC official helped direct millions to his daughter’s center without disclosing family connection
• Since LAist started reporting, we’ve also uncovered the group was two years overdue in completing a required audit into whether the meal funds were spent appropriately.
• And LAist found the amount of taxpayer money directed to the nonprofit was much larger than initially known. It totals at least $13.5 million in county funding — tallied from government records obtained and published by LAist. 
• After our reporting, O.C. officials wrote demand letters to the nonprofit saying millions in funding were unaccounted for. They warned the nonprofit that it could be forced to repay the funds.
• And, LAist found the nonprofit missed a deadline set by county officials to provide proof about how funding for meals were spent.
• On Aug. 2, LAist reported O.C. officials were demanding the refund of more than $3 million in public funds awarded by Do to VAS and another nonprofit, Hand to Hand.
• Six days later, LAist reported Orange County officials had expanded demands for refunds of millions in tax dollars from the nonprofits and threatened legal action.
• On Aug. 15, LAist reported O.C. officials sued VAS and its key officers and associated businesses, including Rhiannon Do. The lawsuit alleges that county money was illegally used to purchase five homes and was converted into cash through ATM transactions. 
• Then, on Aug. 19, LAist reported O.C. officials had announced a second lawsuit against Hand to Hand and its CEO to recover millions of taxpayer dollars that were directed by Supervisor Do.
• LAist broke the news on Aug. 22 that federal agents were searching Rhiannon Do's home in Tustin. Later that day, Supervisor Do's home, and other properties, were also raided.
• On Oct. 16, LAist reported that the wife of Supervisor Do's top aide was hired for a $275,000 contract. County officials say the work was never turned in and two days later LAist reported that a court filing confirmed a federal grand jury had been convened and subpoenas issued.
• Six days later, federal prosecutors announced Andrew Do had agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. They said Do accepted over $550,000 in bribes for directing and voting in favor of more than $10 million in COVID funds to VAS. He resigned as supervisor the same day.
• On June 6, 2025, prosecutors announce indictment of Peter Anh Pham on charges that he bribed an elected Orange County supervisor and then "pocketed" most of the $12 million in pandemic relief money gained under the contract.
• Do is sentenced to five years in federal prison on June 9.

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