Orange County has been rocked by its second major corruption scandal a little over two years after a federal corruption probe surfaced in Anaheim, forcing the mayor to resign and ending a stadium sale.
Disgraced former OC Supervisor Andrew Do agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery in a scheme that enriched his family anywhere from $550,000 to $730,000, according to his signed plea agreement released this week.
[Read: OC Supervisor Andrew Do Charged With Corruption by Federal Prosecutors]
“By this conduct, defendant not only engaged in public corruption in violation of federal law, but he also abused his position of trust as the OCBOS Supervisor for District One,” reads the filing.
It all stems from $10 million in contracts he steered to the Viet America Society, where his daughter was a leading official and bought a Tustin house with some of the embezzled tax money – something she’s slated to forfeit, according to her signed diversion agreement.
The money was part of the federal COVID bailout package the County of Orange received during the pandemic.
Of the $9.3 million intended to feed the elderly in Little Saigon, federal prosecutors found that only 15% – around $1.4 million – went to feeding people.
The scandal comes a little more than two years after a federal corruption probe rocked Anaheim City Hall – one that saw former Mayor Harry Sidhu plead guilty to obstruction of justice for lying to federal investigators about trying to ram through the Angel Stadium sale for $1 million in campaign support.
The stadium land sale fell apart, Sidhu resigned and pleaded guilty to a series of federal charges, including tax evasion.
[Read: Anaheim City Council Cans Angel Stadium Deal After FBI Corruption Probe Into City Hall]
Now, a series of questions are being raised over what kind of reforms should reign in the influence of OC Supervisors.
And how to restore public trust.
[Read: Calls for Reform Grow in OC After Supervisor Admits to Bribery in Plea Agreement]
“It’s really demoralizing to see elected officials profit for themselves, give favors to friends – a pay for play mentality. And that makes people trust the government less,” said Jodi Balma, a local politics observer and Fullerton College political science professor, in an interview.
Mike Moodian, a Chapman University Sociology professor who helps conduct annual polling OC residents on an array of local issues, said the City of Bell – where millions of tax dollars were embezzled – should’ve changed local governments.
“One would think in the aftermath of the City of Bell scandal, we would see concerted efforts to clean up city halls and county halls of administration across the United States. But that apparently did not happen because we still see a lot of corruption taking place,” Moodian said in an interview.
Is it Time for an Independent Investigation?
There’s also increasing concerns of a culture at the county Hall of Administration that allowed for such corruption to blossom.
Line Staff at the County of Orange were raising concerns about Viet America Society as early as February 2022.
[Read: OC Staff Raised Early Concerns on Viet America Society Contract That Saw FBI Raids]
Balma said it’s time OC Supervisors launch an internal investigation to figure out how millions of dollars went missing in the VIet America Society contracts, which could reverse the culture at the Hall of Administration.
“There were so many of their internal processes that were ignored. And I have not seen anything from the county that makes me trust they have actually changed the culture,” Balma said.
Moodian also said an internal investigation is needed.
“Absolutely and the public should demand it,” Moodian said in an interview. “I would venture to guess that there are other areas where we need rules, we need procedures where there’s cases of corruption.”
In a Wednesday statement, Supervisor Katrina Foley didn’t directly address if there’s a need for an independent investigation.
Instead, Foley’s office pointed to auditing efforts.
“At Supervisor Foley’s request, the County’s currently auditing all ARPA, CARES Act, and Board office spending, including her own. The audits include compliance, deliverables, and confirming proper authority by the vendor to enter into contracts,” Foley’s statement reads.
“Supervisor Foley believes all must be accountable to the taxpayers and welcomes numerous independent investigations to ensure tax dollars are protected.”
Her colleague, Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said it’s time for such an investigation.
“I always think an outside review can be more objective, more unbiased, and independent,” Sarmiento said in a Wednesday interview. “Unfortunately, this moment calls for something like that.”
Sarmiento also raised concerns “that this type of conduct may have been occurring prior to the pandemic.
“Audits – in my opinion – should be done of maybe other contracts outside of the pandemic and maybe prior to the pandemic that then-Supervisor Do deliberated on, supported, advocated for,” he said.
Supervisors Doug Chaffee and Don Wagner did not respond for comment Wednesday.
It’s been roughly two months since federal agents raided Do’s home and county attorneys initiated a lawsuit against Viet America Society.
In contrast, Anaheim officials hired outside investigators roughly two months after the FBI probe surfaced in 2022.
Investigators in Anaheim’s probe detailed alleged pay-to-play schemes, loose lobbyist rules and Disney resort interests’ outsized influence on city policymaking.
Shortly after the city-commissioned independent investigation was released in Anaheim last year, Mayor Ashleigh Aitken led a series of reforms – like beefing up lobbyist registration, something long called for by residents and activists.
While some say the reforms didn’t go far enough, there have been a series of concrete transparency measures adopted in the wake of what the independent investigation showed.
“One of the reasons I think it’s so crucial to do the investigation is because is it one manager that was overruling all of the people or is it more widespread than that? I don’t know – but the county should want to find out,” Balma said, pointing to reforms Anaheim made.
“Andrew Do did not do this alone.”
Anaheim’s Reforms
In the wake of the corruption scandal in Anaheim, officials hired independent investigators with decades of law enforcement experience to launch their own corruption probe into city hall – an investigation officials later became hesitant to fully fund.
In 2023, those investigators reached similar conclusions to FBI agents and alleged Disneyland Resort interests exert outsized influence over city hall.
A host of other issues – like the local Chamber of Commerce allegedly using tax dollars in a political data mining operation – were detailed in the 353-page investigation report.
[Read: Anaheim’s Own Look at City Hall Finds Disneyland Resort Businesses Improperly Steer Policymaking]
Many of the investigators’ findings, like the alleged political data mining scheme, weren’t detailed in federal filings.
In the months following the corruption probe’s release, Anaheim officials discussed, debated and implemented a host of reforms.
Some of the overhauls include requiring officials to use government phones, requiring council members to post their calendars online so residents can see who they’re meeting with and mandating Disney’s in-house lobbyists to register with the city.
In 2019, Sidhu used his self-funded campaign account from his failed 2016 state Assembly run to fundraise more than $100,0000 of the very interests detailed in both the FBI corruption probe and the independent investigation report.
[Read: Anaheim Mayor Sidhu Pays Off 2016 Assembly Debt by Fundraising While Mayor]
Anaheim’s reformed campaign finance law now requires city council candidates to repay their debts within a year of an election and limited personal campaign loans to $100,000 per election – along with an ethics officer to oversee campaign finance changes and ensure officials adhere to state and local laws.
The independent investigators also detailed an alleged pay-to-play scheme headed up by Sidhu in a contested gas station opening – one that gas station owner Isa Bahu is suing the city over, alleging the move cost him millions of dollars in lost profits.
“It is our belief that then-Mayor Sidhu, considering these political contributions and using his power over the majority of the city council, went about wrongfully denying Bahu his development plans due to the competing gas station owner’s political contributions to Sidhu’s campaign,” investigators wrote.
[Read: A Gas Station Owner Says City Corruption Cost Him Money, Now He is Suing Anaheim]
Alleged pay-to-play schemes like the gas station and developer favoritism weren’t documented in any of the public court filings from the U.S. Attorney’s Office or sworn affidavits from the FBI.
Irvine Refuses City Hall Probe
Anaheim wasn’t the only city hall detailed in the FBI corruption probe that first surfaced in 2022.
Former Democratic power broker Melehat Rafiei agreed to plead guilty to attempted wire fraud after attempting to bribe two Irvine City Council members for favorable cannabis legislation in 2018, according to her plea deal.
But city council members narrowly refused to launch an investigation last year, with some saying it could’ve turned into a politicized attack – similar sentiments echoed in Anaheim by some council members.
A Voice of OC investigation found that Rafiei was still working on the mayor’s behalf in 2023, regularly speaking with the city manager at city hall.
[Read: Did Irvine’s Mayor Keep Working With Consultant Caught Up in FBI Corruption Probe?]
While Irvine officials refused to conduct an independent investigation, they did use Anaheim’s probe as a way to beef up their lobbyist ordinances.
[Read: Irvine Tightens Lobbying Rules]
Balma, the Fullerton college political science professor and local politics observer, said a well-conducted investigation at the county level will encourage whistleblowing by protecting employees.
“If those people were the ones raising concerns and saying I do not want to process this check (to Viet America Society), who told them to do it anyway and why are they still employed?” Balma said. “Until an investigation happens, the message to employees is the only consequence is external.”
She also said an investigation could help “establish a culture of transparency, to establish an environment of whistleblowers.”
Moodian, the local elections expert and Chapman University professor, said corruption scandals that appeared in Anaheim, Irvine and most recently the County of Orange have become synonymous with OC.
“It’s come to define Orange County in some ways – public corruption – and it’s disheartening.”
Editor’s note: Ashleigh Aitken’s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC’s board of directors.
Spencer Custodio is the civic editor. You can reach him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio.
Reporters Noah Biesiada and Hosam Elattar contributed to this story.
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