Andrew Do’s plea agreement comes after years of allegations and ethics violations – Orange County Register

Andrew Do’s agreement to plead guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and to resign from his position as district supervisor, both disclosed on Tuesday, October 22, closes a long list of ethical issues, investigations and fines levied against Do over the last 17 years of his career political.

Here is a brief outline of this career:

• 2007: Do, a lawyer who escaped from Vietnam as a child in 1975 and grew up in Garden Grove, becomes chief of staff to junior Garden Grove politician Janet Nguyen. Do is Nguyen’s powerful deputy in Vietnamese-language media, helping the 30-year-old become the youngest supervisor in county history.

• 2008: Do, a former public defender and assistant district attorney, wins his own election to replace Nguyen on the Garden Grove City Council.

• 2010: Do leaves his job as Nguyen’s chief of staff.

• 2011: Do unexpectedly resigns from Garden Grove councilor. Political opponents accuse Do of not living in the city and using his home in Tustin as his primary residence. If true, it would be a violation of state election law. Do denies these claims and does not make any allegations. He explains his decision to step down from the board by saying he wants to resume his law career and help run the Lee’s Sandwich store he co-owns with Nguyen’s husband, Tom Bonikowski Jr.

• 2015: Do returns to politics, seeking to fill Nguyen’s seat on the Board of Supervisors in the 1st District after her successful bid for a seat in the California State Assembly. Do defeats longtime Santa Ana politician Lou Correa by 43 votes; Correa becomes a congressman representing Santa Ana and Anaheim in Washington. During the 2015 campaign and in subsequent campaigns, Do is accused of living outside the district he is trying to represent, again due to the Tustin home he purchased in 2002. Do admits he purchased the Westminster home to meet the residency requirements in county.

• 2016: Do wins his first re-election to the Board of Supervisors, in part on a promise to help homeless people leave the Santa Ana Civic Center area. Two years later, he is involved in the relocation of hundreds of people living in tents near the Santa Ana River.

• 2017: Do is rejected in his bid to oversee CalOptima, a $3.7 billion program that provides health care to nearly half a million low-income Orange County residents. The state later blocks Do’s next bid to appoint all five regulators to CalOptima’s board. Do eventually becomes chairman of the board of CalOptima.

• 2018: Do is accused of misusing tax dollars to pay for mailings that he uses as campaign fliers in his re-election race against Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez. At one point, Do is shipping about 470,000 pieces of mail for about $148,000. While not illegal at the time, the move is believed to be a key reason the state passed a law setting clear rules for tax-funded campaign flyers.

• 2022: Do’s bid for California state treasurer ends when she fails to advance in the primary, finishing third behind Jack Guerrero and eventual winner Fiona Ma.

• 2022: The California Fair Political Practices Commission alleges Do used his role at CalOptima to steer contracts with lobbyists who had previously donated to his campaigns. The commission demands payment of an administrative penalty of $12,000. The same report noted that Do failed to timely release reports on campaign donors associated with the monument proposed for Mile Square Park. The commission concluded that these donations could be used to gain Do’s political favor.

• 2023: Do leaves his position as president of CalOptima in February. He was previously criticized for supporting massive pay raises for some CalOptima executives and for hiring aide Veronica Carpenter in a newly created $282,000-a-year position as chief of staff. The move was questionable, in part because Carpenter had less than a year of experience in hospital administration.

• 2023: LAist first reports that Do helped donate millions of dollars to a nonprofit without disclosing his daughter Rhiannon’s role in the organization.

• October 22, 2024: Do agrees to plead guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with a scheme involving the Vietnamese American Society and embezzlement of multimillion-dollar COVID relief funds. He admits that he received over $550,000 in bribes to vote for VAS and funnel millions to VAS, where his daughter was hired as part of a bribery scheme. As part of the concluded contract, he resigns from membership in the Supervisory Board.