By Jose E. Navarro, MBA | The Navarro Report | September 22, 2026
Andrew Do built his political career representing Little Saigon — the heart of the largest Vietnamese-American community in the United States. He cultivated the image of a community servant, a public official who understood the struggles of immigrant families and the elderly residents who had built their lives in Orange County. When federal pandemic relief funds arrived, those elderly and disabled residents were the stated beneficiaries of more than $10 million in contracts Do steered to the Viet America Society, a nonprofit promising meals and support services to the most vulnerable people in his district.
Only $1.4 million of that money reached them.
On June 9, 2025, Andrew Do reported to federal prison to serve five years for conspiracy to commit bribery — the consequence of a plea agreement in which he admitted funneling more than $10 million in public funds to an organization where his 23-year-old daughter Rhiannon, then a UC Irvine law student, had signed documents identifying herself as the nonprofit’s president or vice president. Do approved those contracts without disclosing his daughter’s role. When LAist reporter Nick Gerda broke the story in 2023, Do did not acknowledge the conflict. He called it slander, demanded Gerda’s firing, and accused the Orange County Register of spreading “gross misinformation” when it called for his resignation.
Prosecutors were unambiguous about what actually happened. Of the more than $10 million Do steered to the Viet America Society — funds nominally designated for meals for the elderly and disabled residents of Little Saigon — only $1.4 million went to that purpose. Prosecutors called Do’s conduct “despicable” and his attempt to minimize his crimes “absurd.” The sentencing judge found that Do’s willingness to involve his own family in the scheme reflected “moral indifference.” Peter Pham, the founder of the Viet America Society and Do’s co-conspirator, was separately charged with bribery.
The financial architecture of the scheme is what a public finance practitioner finds most instructive. The Viet America Society received funds in tranches directly traceable to Do’s discretionary allocation authority — $200,000 in an initial contract, amended to $2 million, followed by $849,516 and an additional $3 million authorization in June 2023, all flowing through the Board of Supervisors without the competitive bidding, dual-signature requirements, or subcontractor due diligence that standard procurement protocols exist to enforce. The March 2026 Phase 1 forensic audit by Weaver and Tidwell, covering 145 of Do’s highest-risk contracts worth $486.2 million, found a systemic pattern of procurement manipulation: county staff bullied into approving vendors without proper documentation, no-bid contracts steered to Do’s associates, and over $800,000 in payments to a separate COVID clinic authorized despite documented billing concerns.
At an August 2025 federal hearing, U.S. District Court Judge James Selna awarded Orange County only $878,230 of the $10 million in restitution it sought. Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who succeeded Do in District 1, issued a statement noting that the county is continuing to pursue an additional $5 million from seized bank accounts and property tied to Do’s daughter. The total cost of forensic audits, litigation, technology reviews, and recovery efforts has already exceeded $1.7 million — paid by the same taxpayers Do claimed to serve.
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who championed the forensic audit, framed it correctly: “The findings showed the bullying tactics and a culture that allowed Andrew Do to benefit his family and friends with special treatment and dollars at the expense of county residents.”
The $8.6 million that did not reach its intended recipients will not be recovered. The elderly residents of Little Saigon who went without meals during a pandemic cannot be made whole by a restitution hearing. What Orange County owes them now is the institutional architecture — competitive bidding requirements, whistleblower protections, independent audit authority — that might have caught Andrew Do before the damage was done.
Human-Directed AI Journalism | The Navarro Report
This article was produced under The Navarro Report’s Human-Directed AI Journalism model. Jose E. Navarro, MBA, directed all research, selected the topic, determined the analytical framework, and approved the final version. AI assisted with research compilation and drafting. Every factual claim was verified against primary sources.
© 2026 The Navarro Report | jose@navarro-report.com | navarro-report.com