To go hungry is more than an absence of food; it is a painful, all-consuming sensation— one that brings intense nausea and pounding headaches, all while sapping energy and making the ability to maintain concentration a near-impossible task. It is this suffering that Andrew Do had inflicted to the older adults and disabled residents during the Covid-19 pandemic, those most in need of the financial assistance that was supposed to be provided to them in Orange County, California. The United States Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California estimates that only 15% of those funds were used for their proper, intended purpose. Instead, the ten million dollars designated for relief was used to pay fictitious family salaries, contribute to a mortgage valued at over a million dollars, pay property taxes, and feed into other avenues of corruption. Each day, term limits become an increasingly necessary measure to protect constituents from the rapacity of their politicians.
Until his resignation this year, Andrew Do had been the Orange County Supervisor since 2015. The first step of this scheme was to use his influence to steer the money in his intended destination— the Viet America society. The LAist reports that one of his daughters, Rhiannon Do, held top-level positions at the nonprofit during this timeframe. This includes president, officer, and director. In fact, they had found her signature on some of the public records that proved her association and influence.
With this information in mind, it’s logical to follow how a nonprofit organization was able to maintain a monthly payment of one hundred thousand dollars—or more— from April 2021 to February of 2024, an approximate total of over $3.8 million dollars to “company #1.” Additionally, the attorney’s office states that Rhiannon Do was also given $8,000 a month, equating to around $224,000. “Company #1” gave his daughter over $380,000, then feeding it to an escrow company in order to purchase a home in her name, a mortgage worth over a million dollars. Andrew Do admits that it wasn’t just the money that was a bribe, the application was as well, considering it was riddled with false information and fabricated documents.
To the people’s detriment, there’s more. The attorney’s office also finds that an additional $100,000, including three $25,000 checks, were sent to his other daughter. They word the truth plainly: “Do knew that VAS was not providing all the meals for which the county had paid VAS. Instead, much of the funds were used for the benefit of insiders, including to buy real estate in the name of both Do’s daughter and Company #1, bribe payments to both of Do’s daughters, payments to other conspirators, payments to other companies affiliated with VAS’s listed officers, and through hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash withdrawals.” This includes almost fifteen thousand dollars used to make property tax payments owned by him and his wife, in addition to another fifteen thousand dollars to pay off one of his credit cards. And this only extends to Do and his family, not even the amounts taken by the insiders involved.
An already vulnerable demographic, elderly and disabled citizens had to fend for themselves during the Covid-19 crisis while suffering the ruthless, unforgiving pangs of hunger and isolation. He robbed countless people of full bellies, of security, and quite possibly their lives, depending on how they fared in the aftermath of his greed. If this scale of corruption was possible with ten years in office, it is terrifying to imagine the scale of corruption that lies in the wake of career politicians that have served for decades. This, another example among many, demonstrates the necessity of term limits. It is more than likely that it would have prevented this turn of events, the tragic nature of what they endured. We the people deserve better.