He was the darling of SoCal’s Vietnamese community. Then Andrew Do was accused of betraying them

As a young boy, Andrew Do recalled the surprise of seeing spaghetti replace pho noodles on his dinner plate after his family fled to the U.S. after the fall of Saigon.

It’s a story Do has told many times — how his family first moved to an Arkansas refugee camp. They later settled in Alabama and his parents found work in a cotton mill. Finally, the family moved to Orange County.

He would tell his audiences the culture shock and hardships of his childhood had an upside. It allowed him to understand “the suffering of immigrants and the disadvantaged” because of his own immigration experience, and the anti-immigrant and racism his family experienced.

Do’s story would resonate with voters because it mirrored the community’s story.

And that messaging would help catapult him to one of the most powerful jobs in Orange County, a seat on the Board of Supervisors from District 1, which encompasses Little Saigon — home to the largest population of Vietnamese people outside Vietnam. The community took pride in his dapper bow ties and polished good looks and saw him as someone who could reach great political heights.

Dzung Do, editor of Vietnamese language media Nguoi Viet, an LAist partner newsroom, said the politician was highly respected in the community. (The two share a last name but are not related.)

“He’s tall, handsome, his wife, who is a judge, was the number two judge in Orange County,” Dzung Do said. People in the community look at Andrew Do as someone who had everything going for him — and ruined it all, he added.  ”People wonder why a smart guy like that, a successful person like that, did something like that. It ruined a whole big family."

Andrew Do is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday in Santa Ana after pleading guilty to bribery: He's accused of lining his pockets with taxpayers’ money meant to feed needy seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The guilty plea comes nearly a year after LAist began investigating what happened to the millions in taxpayer dollars.

What happens next?

Prosecutors are calling for the maximum penalty of five years.

“His childhood experiences with poverty should have taught him the pain that comes from a hungry stomach in times of crisis, and his experiences as a refugee should have made him realize the stress endured by those without a job or financial support” — the very people who could have benefitted from the stolen tax dollars, they wrote.

Paul Meyer, an attorney for Andrew Do, said he has no comment ahead of sentencing.

What Andrew Do has said

When Andrew Do first appeared in court on Oct. 31 to enter his guilty plea, he read from a brief statement, saying, "I have great sorrow for my actions." He also said he apologized "to my family and the people who depended upon me."

In a letter to the court in advance of his sentencing, he wrote, “I don’t want to minimize my deep regret and disappointment in myself. I know that I have caused the total destruction of my career and good name, and have harmed my family beyond words.”

He added, “I have apologized to my family and to the public.”