A nonprofit run by O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do’s 22-year-old daughter has failed to meet a county deadline to prove what it did with millions of taxpayer dollars Do provided the group to feed needy residents, according to a county spokesperson.
County staff warned the group in February that it had failed to provide required proof of what it did with $4 million earmarked for meals during the pandemic.
For nearly a year, the county had been asking for transaction records, a list of who received meals and other details. That’s according to warning letters issued by the county’s OC Community Resources department, which oversees the contracts for the funds.
Then, last month, county officials gave the group, Viet America Society, 30 more days to provide proof of how the money was spent. They warned Viet America that if it failed to meet that deadline, the county could make them return the money.
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In last month’s warning letters, county staff wrote that their department “demands for [Viet America Society] to provide all the program performance standards, monthly list of recipients, and accounting records for this contract” within 30 days.
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“If [Viet America Society] is unable to demonstrate that it performed its contract obligations, made valid requests for payment/reimbursement, and the County’s payments under the Contract were for allowable costs, the County may disallow the costs and require repayment to the County,” the letters add.
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“The County reserves and does not waive or relinquish any rights or remedies that may be available to the County under the Contract or law including, but not limited to, the right to seek reimbursement for the payments made to [Viet America Society].”
The deadline to provide that proof for taxpayer funds spent in the fiscal year ending in mid-2021 was 5 p.m. Thursday.
“We did not receive a response from VAS,” Alexa Pratt, a spokesperson for the OC Community Resources, said Friday morning when asked if the documents had been turned in by the deadline.
Supervisor Do, his daughter Rhiannon Do, and the nonprofit’s founder Peter Pham did not return messages for comment.
On Friday — the day after the deadline — a lawyer for Viet America Society sent a letter to the county saying more time is needed to gather the information and hire someone to do a required audit.
That audit is nearly two years overdue, and county officials had previously given an extension to this Thursday for it to be turned in. The audit was required under the nonprofit’s county contract and federal law.
County officials plan to set up a meeting with the nonprofit’s lawyer to “discuss further steps,” said county spokesperson Molly Nichelson.
Viet America Society’s attorney is Sterling Scott Winchell, who was Supervisor Do’s appointee to the county ethics commission from 2018 to 2023. He also has been representing Viet America Society’s founder, Pham, in a personal injury lawsuit Pham filed last August surrounding a car crash.
Another deadline is looming. By 5 p.m. Monday, Viet America Society must also turn in overdue proof for fiscal year 2021-2022.
Calls for accountability
“These are taxpayer dollars and we need to make sure that they’re being held accountable for their use,” Supervisor Katrina Foley said Friday in an interview with LAist.
“It’s the same for any contract that we let: If you hire a vendor to do something and you are paying for a specific product or service, and they don’t have a way to prove that they provided the product or service, then we of course should demand a refund,” she said. “I would apply this same standard to any contract.”
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said he’ll be asking the county’s lawyers about remedies the county can pursue.“I’m disappointed when any vendor that has a contract with the county fails to perform or produce documentation requested,” he said in a statement to LAist.
Viet America Society has been the subject of a monthslong LAist investigation that has uncovered more than $13 million in taxpayer funds that Supervisor Do directed, or helped direct, to his daughter’s group without publicly disclosing his family connection. Most of the spending never appeared on public meeting agendas, and several top county officials — including CEO Frank Kim and supervisors Katrina Foley and Vicente Sarmiento — say they weren’t told of the connection.
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The Huntington Beach nonprofit, which uses the names Viet America Society and Warner Wellness Center, has been run by O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do’s 22-year-old daughter, and another close associate of Do’s, Peter Pham, according to county and state records.
- In total, LAist has uncovered that Supervisor Do directed more than $13 million in taxpayer money to the group since 2021.
- Supervisor Do never publicly disclosed his close family ties. And most of the money was awarded without ever appearing on public agendas, according to county records and a search of county agendas.
The nonprofit charged taxpayers at least 60% more for meals for seniors than another vendor, according to public records reviewed by LAist.
What action can the county take now?
A county spokesperson said officials will be considering next steps.
The county has, at times, sued contractors to get them to pay back taxpayer money it believed was mishandled. In one case, a company paid the county $26 million to settle a lawsuit over a failed software project.
While county executives can present options for next steps, it’s ultimately up to the board of supervisors to decide whether to have the county file lawsuits. Do is among the five board members.
Supervisor Do’s daughter, Rhiannon Do, is a second-year law student at UC Irvine. A previous LinkedIn page for her listed no prior work experience, aside from a legislative internship. She became business partners with Viet America Society’s founder, Pham, in 2021 and has been listed on and off as the group’s president or executive director on state and county records since at least February 2022.
She was Viet America Society’s only director, according to its latest public tax filing — which covers 2022 — and she signed a subcontract as its president in June 2023.
A surprise closure announcement, then a reversal
As Viet America Society faces pressure from the county to account for millions, it suddenly announced earlier this month it would close immediately and lay off its employees — including those who staff the county’s Vietnamese mental health support hotline.
But two days later, the group reversed course, saying its employees would return to work, according to the O.C. chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which manages Viet America Society’s $1.25 million per year county-funded subcontract for the hotline work. The story was first reported by LAist.
NAMI says it took action a few days later and suspended Viet America Society from working on the hotline.
Do is termed out of office in December, and the candidate he endorsed to succeed him — his chief of staff, Van Tran — is not on track to make the runoff. Tran is in a distant third in this month’s primary, down by 8 percentage points with just 3% of ballots countywide left to be processed as of Thursday.
State Sen. Janet Nguyen and Cypress City Councilmember Frances Marquez are ahead with 44% and 26%, respectively, to Tran’s 18%.
Many years ago, Nguyen and Do were close allies, going back to her successful first run for county supervisor in 2007. Do served as her chief of staff. But the two had a major falling out in the year after Do was elected supervisor in 2015. They are widely described as fierce foes, with the animosity sometimes spilling out into public attacks on each other during elections.
Both candidates headed to a November runoff to succeed Do as the supervisor representing Little Saigon and western O.C. cities like Huntington Beach, say there needs to be accountability for what happened with the money.
Nguyen says Viet America Society needs to return the money if it can’t show what it did with it, and called on the county to audit the group.
“If Wellness Warner-Viet America Society doesn’t provide and produce the accounting on how they spent taxpayers’ money, they are obligated to return all the money to the county,” Nguyen said in a statement to LAist. “In addition, it is time that the county demand accounting and audit all of the contracts from Wellness Warner and Viet America Society to account for the full $13.5 [million]. A full audit will determine exactly how the money was spent and whether the services were provided or not.”
Marquez alleges Do has fostered a “culture of corruption.”
“I am deeply troubled by the culture of corruption, mismanagement and impunity that has defined Andrew Do’s legacy. But this did not begin with Andrew Do,” she said in a statement, alleging that Do learned to be unethical while serving as Nguyen’s chief of staff years ago when she was a county supervisor.
“We reject the Nguyen-Do legacy of corruption and mismanagement,” Marquez wrote.
In response, Nguyen said Do’s unethical behavior has been after she stopped working with him.
“It is clear that Andrew Do has chosen to put himself before the community and I have been deeply disappointed in the ethical lapses Andrew Do has demonstrated since he left my office almost a decade ago,” Nguyen said in a follow-up statement.
“It has been very clear that we have had a [falling] out and have not spoken to each other since then,” she added. “Orange County taxpayers are not a piggy bank for grifters and special interest groups.”
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