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Federal authorities raided houses belonging to County Supervisor Andrew Do’s daughter and Peter Pham, the president of a nonprofit currently getting sued by county leaders for allegedly misspending more than $13 million in federal COVID bailout money.
Mark Rosen, the lawyer for the nonprofit Viet America Society where both Rhiannon Do and Pham worked, declined to comment on Thursday morning, but confirmed the raids took place.
Do did not respond to requests for comment.
The FBI executed search warrants at Rhiannon Do’s Tustin home along with Pham’s Garden Grove home and his business the Perfume River Restaurant and Lounge, where he claimed to have distributed meals to the elderly.
Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s office, declined to comment on the issue, saying the search warrants were being executed under a sealed order from the court.
Spokespeople for the FBI did not return requests for comment.
County leaders say the nonprofit hasn’t been able to prove it spent the money feeding the elderly, pointing to a series of other contracts for things, including the construction of a war memorial and other nutritional aid they say never happened.
A bulk of the money was slated to feed elderly people, but county officials question how that money was spent – pointing to questionable invoicing in their court filings.
“VAS (Viet Society of America) did not merely refuse to provide supporting documentation or simply fail to perform under the Contracts. Rather, the County is informed and believes and thereon alleges that VAS surreptitiously transferred the funds to the other named Defendants for their collective enrichment,” reads the county’s lawsuit.
[Read: Orange County Sues County Supervisor’s Daughter and Nonprofit Over Missing COVID Money]
The raids, first reported by LAist, come as the County of Orange is currently suing the Viet Society of America and the Hand to Hand Relief Organization, along with several of their leaders including Rhiannon Do, Pham, Dinh Mai, Thu Thao Thi Vu and Thanh Huong Nguyen – alleging a series of inappropriate spending.
“Despite multiple requests by the County, VAS has failed or refused to provide supporting documentation to establish that it performed the work required by the Contracts because the records simply do not exist,” reads the lawsuit.
[Read: Santana: Orange County’s Bankruptcy of Oversight]
County officials allege some of the federal bailout money was used by the nonprofit officials to buy homes across Orange County, including both of the houses raided Thursday by the FBI.
“VAS not only failed to perform its contractual obligations for County residents, but instead, diverted Contract funds to the personal gain of its officers, directors and associated businesses and individuals,” reads the lawsuit.
The money came from a mixture of contracts from the county government itself and over $5 million came directly from Supervisor Andrew Do’s office directly to the nonprofit without disclosing his daughter worked there, which is legal.
Rosen has previously called the county’s lawsuit “a hatchet job” and insists the money went to feeding seniors, but the nonprofit just did a poor job at tracking it.
“It’s designed to maximize publicity and there are a lot of facts that are just plain wrong,” Rosen said in an interview last week. “It was cooked, it was delivered, it was packaged, but they weren’t real good about the paperwork at the beginning.”
Do is facing calls from at least one supervisor to resign, while a majority of the board has called for federal and state authorities to intervene, along with District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
[Read: Calls Mount For OC’s District Attorney To Figure Out Where $13 Million in COVID Funds Went]
“That is about as egregious as you can get with misusing public funds,” said Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento in a statement last week. “If the claims alleged in the complaints are true, Supervisor Do should consider stepping down. County residents deserve answers.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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