Backstory:
In 2021, Peggy Hall filed a lawsuit against the Orange County Board of Supervisors (OCBOS) for prolonging an illegal state of emergency pertaining to Covid. In May of 2022, CHD-CA (now Free Now Foundation), through our legal team at Facts Law Truth Justice, joined Hall’s lawsuit as co-petitioners. The lawsuit postulated, in part, that the OCBOS were illegally prolonging the declared local states of emergency under Covid to enrich themselves and their friends and family with millions in federal Coronavirus relief funds. “We believed that the OCBOS left the declared states of emergency in place for more than 3 years for reasons other than health and safety, and now there is evidence to support that,” says FLTJ attorney Rita Barnett-Rose. Recently it’s come to light that at least one member of the OCBOS was doing just that, and others on the board saw nothing wrong with that.
Covid Monies and the Do Family
OC Board Member Andrew Do is a longtime public servant with a history of scandal. A basic search of his past reveals accusations of residency fraud and money laundering, an explosion of negative press in local Orange County press, including this KCRW article detailing why “Andrew Do Is Unpopular Among Both Democrats and Republicans.” With the emergence of Covid’s massive federal relief funds, Do’s financial scandals resumed, directly benefiting his daughter’s new charity.
* In specific, our administrative team, formerly functioning under CHD-CA (now Free Now Foundation), agreed to help petitioner Peggy Hall pursue litigation against the OC BOS to require it to review the local conditions in the county to determine whether these local conditions continued to justify an ongoing local emergency and local health emergency for COVID-19 (FNF Lawsuits).
In June 2020, Andrew Do’s daughter Rhiannon Do was just 22-years-old, a recent college graduate and law intern with no business experience, when she conveniently started a non-profit called The Warner Wellness Center, a DBA of Viet America, which then applied to receive millions in Covid relief funds controlled by her father, funds purportedly slated to help his entire district through the Covid crisis.
In 2020, prior to this charity being registered with the State of California as a non-profit, Do’s daughter received her first check for a whopping $3.1 million in subcontracts for the Warner Wellness Center, followed by an approval of $4.1 million for Viet America. Over the next three years, Andrew Do would allocate more than $13.5 million in federal Coronavirus relief funds to his daughter’s non-profit, without publicly disclosing their family connection by using a loophole called “district discretionary funding”.
When later asked why he didn’t disclose this clear conflict of interest, Do did not express any remorse. He merely replied that he was not under legal obligation to disclose funds he funneled to his 22-year-old daughter. The law currently only requires that he disclose funds allocated to a spouse or to a child under the age of 18. Recently, two concerned members of the OCBOS tried to close this loophole; unbelievably, the OCBOS denied the vote to provide this transparency!
“A group of community nonprofit leaders were so concerned about the handling of these subcontracts” that they eventually spoke with the FBI, which “doesn’t confirm or deny the existence of investigations.” The LAist
The Warner Wellness Center is confirmed to be under investigation by the State Attorney of California for their failure to submit several years of financial audits totaling millions of dollars. To this day, Do’s daughter has only accounted for $600,000 in expenditure of the millions she received. The LAist. To further complicate matters, while testifying under oath during an investigation by the State Attorney in the matter of his daughter’s non-profit, Andrew Do also “failed to disclose” an important matter: that his wife, Cheri Pham, is also the assistant presiding judge in Orange County. This makes Do’s wife the second most powerful judge in the county.
Corruption or Coincidence: Is the Warner Wellness Center the luckiest non-profit in history?
The Warner Wellness Center began receiving millions in federal funding while it was still “a home-based business” that couldn’t even verify their non-profit status, says Heather Condon, a county contract administrator who was processing the group’s first county contract, as detailed in an email to other officials at her department on Dec. 23, 2020, reports the LAist.
During the course of several years, the Warner Wellness Center has received more than its share of Federal funds:
Out of more than 100 organizations and cities that received federal pandemic relief money distributed by O.C. supervisors in their districts, the nonprofit received the second-largest amount — all of it directed by Supervisor Do — according to a breakdown the county provided LAist. The funding exceeded awards to the O.C. Sheriff’s Department, and the cities of Fullerton, Santa Ana and Westminster, among others. – The LAIST
Our Lawsuit and Why It Matters:
The evidence that Do used his position as a Board member to funnel millions of dollars in “discretionary” Covid relief funds to his own daughter and other family friends while regular OC residents lost their homes, businesses, and educations, and were forced to obey nonsensical public health mandates, is exactly why our lawsuit matters. No county board member is above the law, and existing law requires periodic public hearings on whether a declared local emergency should be kept in place. For nearly two years, the OCBOS refused to provide these hearings in order to keep the relief fund gravy train going. The fact that the OCBOS continues to vote down transparency resolutions as to where these funds are actually going shows exactly why a Court must intervene.
Problem is, we’re experiencing an unusual series of unfortunate events in Orange County courts. Not the least of which is a near-constant turnover of judges overseeing our case. Over just three years, we have gone through “four or five judges,” says Peggy Hall, “I can’t even remember how many at this point.” At every turn, just as we near a seeming resolution in our favor, a judge resigns or retires, and a new judge replaces him or her. Each time a new judge is assigned, the lawsuit is delayed.
Although we can’t definitively tie this strange run of bad luck in OC courts to Do family connections, we also can’t stress enough just how odd this is. “Corruption is everywhere, and it seems to be completely out in the open now, particularly since the unlawful Covid response, as if the opinions of the voters no longer matter,” says Alix Mayer, Chairman of Free Now Foundation. “If we don’t weed it out, who will?”
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DONATEEndnotes
The LAist has reported on this scandal in detail:
1. Top OC Official Helped Direct Millions To His Daughter’s Center Without Disclosing Family Connection,
2. Andrew Do Under Scrutiny,
3. Nonprofit Led By OC Supervisor’s Daughter Failed To Submit Required Audits For Millions In Spending, Records Show,
4. OC Supervisor Quietly Routed Millions More To HIs Daughter’s Group,
5. OC Leaders Tussle Over Ethics And Transparency After LAist Reporting On Top Official.)
Aria Morgan is the Managing Editor of Free Now Foundation. Aria is a passionate and accomplished editor with a diverse background in writing for various industries, including music, film, health and yoga, and with published covers and feature credits in national magazines. Aria is dedicated to protecting civil rights and promoting health and medical freedom, and is thrilled to be a part of the Free Now Foundation team.
This is outrageous, that such sums can do easily and brazenly be diverted for private use by public officials. Thank you, fnf, for shining light on this. Could your case lead to criminal prosecution for Mr Do?
Do we know if any services were even rendered for all this money?
Hi Douglas, this is outrageous, indeed! Our case outcome will have no direct bearing to Andrew Do’s dealings, as we do are involved in the investigation into Do’s situation or any possible criminal charges that may or may not be brought. But this supports our lawsuit because it provides the motive for the board keeping OC in a prolonged state of emergency.
This report of such blatant corruption is absolutely anger provoking information. How have we, the citizens, allowed the corruption to get so common place that our politicians feel comfortable stealing over $13 million and not be concerned that the voters might not like that and might have him thrown in jail? And the other politicians refuse to fix the law? Has an audit of their activities begun yet? How do these people get re-elected?. Voter fraud?. Does OC use those voter fraud machines that helped the DEMS to steal the Presidency in 2020? I had often wondered about all the Covid money. It seemed to be money that would be an easy target for corrupt county politicians and even county staff with access in some manner to those funds. Can you imagine how easily a clerk working on approving funds to pay renters and Landlords with Covid funds could have their friends complete hundreds of applications that they then approve for 50% of the take?. Who has the responsibility to audit the counties every year to look at all the funds and how they are managed?. I’m in San Diego. Have they been audited?