The former Orange County supervisor who’s admitted to corruption also plundered funding for the annual Tet Festival, his successor claims.
The successor to Andrew Do, who funneled COVID-19 relief funds into a nonprofit connected with his daughter, said he spent the money set aside for Tet on the Sept. 14 Moon Festival, forcing the festival’s cancellation, as reported by the Orange County Register.
His successor, Supervisor Janet Nguyen, said the First District coffers are below $15,000. That fund is supposed to be at $200,000, but Do spent three-quarters of that on the September festival, a period of time during which he was already under federal investigation, she said.
“He spent almost everything he had before the newly elected supervisor could be seated, making sure the county couldn’t give constituents a Tet Festival celebration in February,” Nguyen said, as reported by the Register. “His goal was to spend out the money. … I think it’s more of a final flipping the community off.”
Do’s attorney argued that the money was not all spent on the Moon Festival but instead was “the 2024 spending for an entire year of events.”
Do is scheduled to be sentenced in March, at which point he faces up to five years in federal prison.
