A former member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors who agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of accepting more than $550,000 in bribes will likely be recommended for disbarment, the Southern California Record has learned.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in October that Andrew Hoang Do, 62, an attorney and county supervisor since 2015, arranged for multiple bribes in return for voting to send more than $10 million in Covid relief funds to a charity affiliated with his daughter, Rhiannon Do.
Since then, Do has entered the guilty plea and now awaits sentencing by the court on March 31 of next year, according to the minutes of the court’s proceedings. Do has not been deemed a flight risk and is currently free on bond.
The defendant has acknowledged that he voted four years ago, as part of his official duties as an elected official, to direct millions of dollars in Covid relief funds to the charity Viet America Society (VAS), according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office news release.
“Do directed and worked together with other county employees to approve contracts with – and payments to – VAS,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported. “Do further admitted he acted corruptly and abused his position of trust as a county supervisor.”
The funds sent to VAS were meant to provide meals for the elderly during the pandemic. But in actuality, from April 2021 to February of this year, VAS paid an unnamed company $100,000 or more per month, and the company began paying Rhiannon Do $8,000 per month, according to the news release.
A total of $381,500 in additional money was funneled to Rhiannon Do, who used the funds to purchase a home in Tustin, prosecutors alleged . Some of the money also went directly to Andrew Do and was used to make property tax payments on properties he and his wife owned, as well as credit card payments, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Although the California State Bar lists Andrew Do’s law license as active, his attorney profile page also warns the public that he is facing felony charges as a result of his actions.
Based on the provisions of the state Business and Professions Code, the State Bar can seek suspension of an attorney convicted of a felony once it receives a certified copy of a record of conviction. In addition, since bribery is considered evidence of moral turpitude, the State Bar can eventually recommend that the State Bar Court summarily disbar such an offender.
But that could only happen once Do’s conviction becomes final.
The plea agreement announced in October requires Do to turn over any assets connected to the bribery activities, including the Tustin house, prior to his sentencing next year. Government officials in August confiscated more than $2.4 million in bank accounts controlled by VAS and another company involved in its transactions, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Do has also agreed to forfeit any public pension credits he obtained during the time when the bribery activities were taking place, prosecutors said. He is facing a maximum prison term of five years.
“While millions of Americans were dying from COVID-19, Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do was the fox in the hen house personified, raiding millions in federal pandemic relief funds and orchestrating the money intended to feed elderly and ailing residents to instead fill the pockets of insiders, himself and his loved ones, all while portraying a public persona of a hometown hero guiding his constituents through the uncertainty and fear of a global pandemic,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a prepared statement in October.