Andrew Do

Andrew Hoang Do (; born April 23, 1963) is an American attorney and former politician who was a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors for the first district from 2015 to 2024, when he resigned from office as part of an agreement with prosecutors in which he pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery. A Republican, he previously served as both chair and vice chair of the board for two and three terms respectively. Do was a candidate for California State Treasurer in 2022, but was eliminated in the primaries.

Do has had multiple controversies relating to corruption throughout his political career including pay-to-play violations. The county filed a lawsuit to demand the return of the money, and then the FBI subsequently raided his and his daughter's homes.

Early life Do fled with his family from Vietnam to the United States following the Fall of Saigon, with only the clothes they were wearing and a "suitcase full of dictionaries." Do grew up in Garden Grove, California and subsequently attended the University of California, Davis.

Career Do served on several professional boards, including the Vietnamese-American Bar Association of Southern California and the Orange County Bar Association.

In 2007, Do served as the chief of staff for Janet Nguyen, a politician from Southern California.

In 2008, Do was a city council member of Garden Grove, California. He was also a deputy district attorney of Orange County as well as an adjunct professor at California State University of Fullerton. According to campaign spending data from Cal-Access, Do’s campaign raised $212,401 until May 21 for the campaign.

COVID-19 pandemic During the COVID-19 pandemic, Do has been subjected to racist abuse while serving as supervisor. During an Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting on COVID-19 prevention efforts in July 2021, one speaker, under the pseudonym of "Tyler Durden", told Do: “You come to my country, and you act like one of these communist parasites. I ask you to go the f--- back to Vietnam," despite Do being an American citizen and living in the country for more than 46 years.

CalOptima In March 2017, Do attempted to become the supervisor to CalOptima, Orange County's $3.7 billion publicly-funded health insurance plan for low-income citizens. His bid was rejected by the CalOptima board of directors. Do then attempted, but was blocked by state legislators, to take control of CalOptima by proposing that all 5 board members of the OC Board of Supervisors become board members of CalOptima, amid accusations that the takeover effort was motivated by being rejected as chairman, to which Do did not respond.

Improper use of taxpayer money through Viet America Society

Between 2020 through 2023, Do accepted up to $550,000 in bribes in exchange for voting to direct up to $13.5 million taxpayer dollars to Viet America Society (VAS), a nonprofit that his then 19-year old daughter Rhiannon Do formed in 2020, without public votes and without naming the organization or revealing the family relationship. The money was granted under the county's emergency authority dealing with COVID-19 and the federal pandemic response to feed needy seniors during the pandemic.

Lawsuit In 2024, after VAS failed to substantiate the work and show that meals were actually handed out, Orange County authorities brought on a lawsuit against VAS, accusing Chief Executive and founder Peter Ahn Pham, Secretary Dinh Mai, and Rhiannon Do, of using more than $13 million in taxpayer money on "lavish expenses" such as buying personal homes. Authorities demanded VAS to return $2.2 million (representing the entire two contracts to feed the seniors during the pandemic). It also accuses Aloha Financial Investment and its president Thu Thao Thi Vu of wrongdoing. "If Supervisor Do does not resign I will pursue every legal avenue available to have him removed from office [...] Andrew please resign," said Supervisor Katrina Foley.

Plea deal and resignation

On October 22, 2024, the United States Department of Justice announced that Do agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery as a result of the Viet America Society contracts and Do's direction of taxpayer money. The federal charges involved more than $550,000 in bribes for directing and voting in favor of more than $10 million in COVID funds to his daughter's charity.

Do resigned from the office as part of this agreement and pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana later in October.

Residency In the 2008 Garden Grove City Council race, Do's political opponent filed a complaint that he lives in a North Tustin home he purchased in 2002 making him ineligible to sit on the Garden Grove council. No charges were brought against Do. In 2015, during the Board of Supervisors race, Do was likewise accused of residing outside of 1st district in North Tustin (3rd district).

Pay-to-play violations In July 2022, the non-partisan California Fair Political Practices Commission published a stipulation revealing that Do -- while serving on the board of CalOptima in 2016 and 2017 -- has steered government contracts to two lobbyists that were donors of his political campaigns. This is in violation of California's pay-to-play restrictions. The commission noted that "Do made, participated in making, and attempted to use his official position to influence governmental contracting decisions involving a participant who contributed to his campaign". The commission revealed a sum of roughly $5,000 that were donated by the two lobbyist, but that Do did not disclose this or recuse himself from the vote to award the government contracts to them.

Auditors also discovered the Board of Supervisors established a process that aided Do's abuse of public money by setting up a procedure that lacks competitive bidding, transparency, and public approval. The report also stated the county lacked rules that requires details to be documented on invoices, and therefore made it more difficult to see how taxpaper money were being spent.

As CalOptima chairman After becoming CalOptima chairman, he hired one of his longtime advisors to the newly created chief of staff role, paying $282,000 plus benefits.

In 2021, Do led the effort on the board to appoint Blair Contratto as the hospital administrator of CalOptima, despite Contratto lacking experience in Orange County. This caused a rare public rebuke by the Hospital Association of Southern California noting that diverging from the traditional appointment of a local leader "disregards the breadth of knowledge and experience our hospital leaders bring to CalOptima".

Former chairman of CalOptima, Dr. Paul Yost, voiced concerns that “those are healthcare dollars that ought to be going to provide healthcare for the neediest population.”

In February 2023, a day after a local non-profit news agency reported on a state investigation into CalOptima's hiring and pay practices including controversially large salary hikes, Do abruptly resigned as chair.