Nonprofit founders charged with bilking Orange County out of $12 million

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) — The founder of a now-defunct nonprofit in Orange County has been indicted on federal charges that accuse him of bribing a member of the county Board of Supervisors in order to obtain around $12 million in pandemic-related funds.

Thanh Huong Nguyen, 61, was charged with one count each of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. He is expected to be arraigned on Monday.

Peter Anh Pham, 65, is also charged with one count of bribery, six counts of wire fraud, six counts of money laundering, and two conspiracy counts. He is, according to the Department of Justice, considered to be a fugitive from justice.

“These two defendants are charged with conspiring with a corrupt politician to pad their pockets while the nation suffered under the weight of Covid-19,” said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, in a written statement.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer added, in the same statement:  “This conspiracy was a house of cards built on lies, betrayal, and insatiable greed."

The supervisor, Andrew Do, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery last year, and is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday. Prosecutors have asked the judge for the statutory maximum or five years in federal prison. Do is asking for two years and nine months.

According to the15-count indictment, filed on Wednesday but unsealed on Friday, Pham’s Viet America Society and another group founded by Nguyen, the Hand-to-Hand Relief Organization, were awarded numerous contracts by the county, in which they pledged to “reimburse the county for any funds that were not spent for the contract’s intended purpose.”

“Pham and Nguyen would then spend large portions of the funds to pay personal expenses (such as rent and bills) and debts owed by defendants’ other businesses, and to make personal investments, including by purchasing commercial and residential properties,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment. “Pham and Nguyen would also use the countyfunds to pay bribes to Supervisor Do through payments to his family members…

Each count of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Pham’s bribery county carries a maximum of 10 years.

According to prosecutors, Pham was friends with Do, who served on the five-member Orange County Board of Supervisors from 2015 until 2024, when he resigned as part of his plea deal.

In the his plea agreement, Do admitted to steering $10.4 million in county contracts toward the Viet America Society. Most of that money, $9.3 million, was intended to provide meals to elderly and disabled residents.

But according prosecutors, only $1.4 million was actually spent on meals to fulfill the nonprofit’s contracts. Much of the rest was spent “for the benefit of insiders, including to purchase properties.” The nonprofit also funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to Do’s daughters.

Last year, then-U.S. attorney Martin Estrada likened Do to a “Robin Hood in reverse.”

In a recent memorandum filed with the court ahead of Do’s sentencing, his lawyers wrote: “Andrew Do received no actual payment to himself — all significant funds were provided to his daughter Rhiannon Do — Andrew Do was willfully blinded to the violations by the desire to see benefit to his adult daughter, and his belief that his daughter was providing worthwhile services to those who provided the benefits to her. He now recognizes how completely wrong he was in this catastrophic self-delusion.”

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