Former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, who admitted to receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes while in office, was sentenced to 60 months in prison on Monday.
The sentencing marked the first criminal conviction of a supervisor in nearly a half century. Do was one of the leading Vietnamese-American politicians in Orange County before the bribery scandal emerged, ruining his reputation and forcing his resignation when he agreed in a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty.
“I just do not believe any sentence other than the maximum reflects the seriousness of the crime,” Judge James Selna said in handing down the five-year sentence Monday morning. “Public corruption wreaks damage far beyond the monetary loss to the county, it undermines public trust.”
Do was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. The charge carried a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison, which prosecutors sought. Defense attorneys for Do had argued for a 33-month sentence.
Do resigned in October from the OC Board of Supervisors and agreed to plead guilty for accepting more than $550,000 in bribes in a scheme involving the embezzlement of millions in COVID-relief funds. He had directed contracts to Viet America Society and Hand-to-Hand Relief Organization Inc., the former of which kicked money back to Do through payments to his daughter, Rhiannon Do, the former supervisor admitted in his plea agreement.
Much of the money came from First District discretionary funds. Of the $9.3 million allocated by Do to Viet America Society, meant to provide meals for the elderly and people with disabilities during the pandemic, only $1.4 million was spent on meals, according to his plea agreement.
Rhiannon Do received most of the bribes via a high-paying job at Viet America Society and $350,000 for a down payment on a $1 million Tustin Home. Do’s other daughter received $100,000 from Viet America Society.
Before sentencing, defense attorneys argued that Do had been “willfully blinded” the payments to his daughters could be construed as a bribe since he did not receive the benefit for himself. The former supervisor didn’t realize he was being bribed, they said, and once he understood the scope of what happened he decided to plead guilty. He was weeks away from finishing out his last term on the OC Board of Supervisors at the time.
When prosecutors unsealed new charges on Friday, expanding the case to include the founder of Viet America Society, Peter Pham, and an associate with Hand-to-Hand Relief Organization Inc., Thanh Huong Nguyen, they detailed allegations of how the funding Do had allocated ended up in the two men’s pockets, spent on real estate purchases, lavish dinners and more.
Nguyen is expected to be arraigned today, June 9, but a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office said Pham had left the country in December, headed for Taipei, Taiwan. He is considered a fugitive from justice.
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