For months after Andrew Do resigned from the Orange County Board of Supervisors and pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges he continued to receive dozens of confidential emails between the board and its lead attorney.
Do’s civil lawyer, Eliot Krieger, notified County Counsel Leon Page of the breach on Feb. 20, as required by state regulations. Krieger told the Orange County Register that he has since ordered a forensic analysis that found 57 emails sent from Page’s government email address to Do’s personal email, beginning on the day the former supervisor resigned, Oct. 22, 2024, to Feb. 21.
Krieger, who does not know the content of the emails, said Do first noticed them after he was added in early February to the county’s lawsuit against a nonprofit group that misspent $10 million in pandemic relief funds. Do is awaiting sentencing in federal court for taking at least $550,000 in bribes to steer the money to the group, Viet America Society.
Page declined to comment on the emails.
County Supervisor Katrina Foley said Thursday, April 3, she is concerned that Do may have been privy to communications from Page dealing with strategies for the lawsuit and ongoing criminal investigations by federal and local agencies.
“When I learned about this, I was outraged. It shows the depths of the criminal mindset of the (person) that was running the county for all these years,” Foley said. “Whatever information he received, I don’t think it helped (him). The facts are the facts, he pleaded guilty.”
How the breach occurred is murky. Foley said Do’s board emails had been forwarded to his personal Gmail address while he was still in office. While Do’s official email account was blocked after he stepped down, he remained on a distribution list and the embedded forwarding function continued to work.
Krieger said the county counsel had added Do to a listserv group that was still active.
“It wasn’t anything Andrew did. … I don’t think he was paying any attention to (the emails),” Krieger said. “Andrew Do has no control over who Leon Page puts in his group emails.”
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said it’s difficult to tell whether Do used, or even read, the information. Spitzer also said at least one other staff member had transferred their county emails to their personal email address.
“The bottom line is it was a bad practice,” Spitzer said. He commended Krieger for alerting the county.
The County Counsel’s Office has ordered Krieger to preserve and turn over all communications received by Do from Page’s email address.
Do stands convicted of steering $9.3 million in federal COVID relief funds to the nonprofit Viet America Society to provide meals to the county’s elderly and people with disabilities. Of that, only $1.4 million was spent on the meals. Do also gave the charity $1 million for a Vietnam veterans monument in Fountain Valley that was never completed.
Do allocated the funding to Viet America Society without disclosing that one of his daughters, Rhiannon, worked and held leadership roles for the group. Part of the money went to buy a $1 million home in Tustin for Rhiannon Do as well as five other properties for people linked to Viet America Society.
Related links
Andrew Do’s agreement to plead guilty comes after years of ethics allegations, violations Supervisor Andrew Do agrees to plead guilty in federal investigation, resign from Board of Supervisors Former OC Supervisor Andrew Do pleads guilty in federal court to bribery charge Ex-OC Supervisor Andrew Do squanders his American dream County supervisors approve external forensic audit of contracts affiliated with Andrew Do, ethics policy updatesDo faces a maximum of five years in federal prison for his part in the scheme.
A onetime Orange County deputy district attorney, Do won a special election in early 2015 to the Board of Supervisors and then his first full term in 2016. Before he resigned as part of his plea agreement, he was the longest-serving supervisor among the board members.
As a child, Do fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. His former supervisorial district included Little Saigon.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Breach sends confidential Orange County emails to disgraced former Supervisor Andrew Do )
Also on site :
- Syria’s National Authority for Transitional Justice defines its plan
- Aldi Is Selling Comfy $7 Lightweight Sandals That Look Just Like Birkenstocks 7x the Price
- ‘Mormon Wives’ Star Regrets Her Plastic Surgery — Here’s Why She’s Reversing It