Orange County First District Supervisor Andrew Do agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery in federal court relating to a scheme involving Viet America Society and the embezzlement of millions in COVID-relief funds intended to help the county’s most vulnerable residents during the pandemic. As part of his agreement, he resigned Tuesday from the Board of Supervisors. United States Attorney Martin Estrada and OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced the agreement in a press conference Tuesday morning at the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana.
It would be the first conviction of an Orange County supervisor in 50 years, Spitzer said, calling Do the “fox guarding the henhouse.” “Perhaps the most tragic in this entire case is the fact that the people he stole from, the money he took, was meant for those who were most vulnerable in our community,” Estrada said. Some $9.
3 million in federal COVID relief funds were granted to the nonprofit Viet America Society, mostly at the direction of Do from his First District discretionary funds , to provide meals to the county’s elderly and people with disabilities. Of that, only an estimated $1.4 million was spent on the meals, said the plea agreement.
Prosecutors criticized Do on Tuesday for concocting a story on social media about the meals programs providing 2,700 meals a week. Estrada said only 15% of the $9.3 million investigators have looked at went to feeding people during the pandemic.
Do admitted.