In a new lawsuit, Orange County alleges that leaders of a nonprofit organization took millions of tax dollars to feed the elderly and the needy during the pandemic, then pocketed more than $10 million and bought homes for themselves.
Among the Viet America Society leaders named in the lawsuit was Rhiannon Do, daughter of Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do.
Last week, county officials demanded that the Viet America Society return $2.2 million in contract payments after the group abruptly fired auditors and failed to show the county how it spent the money.
In a complaint filed Thursday, county officials went beyond accusing the association and its leaders of failing to track how money was being spent. Instead, they accused the organization’s leaders of using taxpayer dollars as “funding sources” for “their own personal bank accounts.”
Rather than feeding the elderly and the needy during the pandemic as their contracts required, the lawsuit alleges that the Viet America Society, or VAS, “brazenly plundered these funds for its own personal gain.”
“VAS cannot account for where the money went, when and where it was spent, and/or whether it was spent for contractual purposes,” the complaint states. “Defendants engaged in widespread self-serving transactions, pocketing local and federal funds.”
The complaint accuses VAS CEO Peter Ahn Pham, Secretary Dinh Mai and other executives of breach of contract, intentional misrepresentation, fiduciary negligence, conspiracy and unjust enrichment, among other allegations.
He also accuses Rhiannon Do of benefiting from the alleged scheme and purchasing a million-dollar home in the process.
LAist was first to report that Supervisor Do had ordered or voted to pay up to $13.5 million to VAS without disclosing that his daughter, then 22, was connected to the group.
VAS’s former attorney, Sterling Scott Winchell, had previously downplayed Do’s role at the nonprofit, telling the Times that she was not a leader of the organization and was “just there working to make meals.”
In the complaint, however, the county supervisor’s daughter is described as a VAS executive, either as president or vice president. At one point, the complaint alleges, she held herself out as the nonprofit’s executive director and attended directors’ meetings.
“This lawsuit is a disgrace,” VAS attorney Mark S. Rosen said in a statement. “VAS provided all the goods and services, but failed to keep proper records in the first place.”
In his statement, Rosen said the lawsuit was politically motivated and insisted that VAS had fulfilled its obligations under the contracts.
“My client continues to provide food and deliveries to the poor and disabled today,” the statement read. “You are all welcome to come see him in action. And they are keeping excellent records today.”
He also claimed the lawsuit contained several factual errors, such as allegations that Pham bought a house in Buena Park with his wife.
Rosen said Pham was not married, did not know the person named as his wife in the lawsuit and did not own property in Buena Park.
The allegations described in the complaint prompted other members of the supervisory board to call on local, state and federal authorities to step in and investigate.
“Orange County’s lawsuit highlights the misuse of taxpayer funds to enrich well-connected insiders instead of feeding vulnerable seniors in the Vietnamese community,” Supervisor Katrina Foley said in a statement. “These allegations demonstrate blatant deception and greed by individuals motivated solely by enrichment.”
Supervisor Do, through his chief of staff Chris Wangsaporn, declined to comment.
The lawsuit alleges that starting in 2020, the county awarded VAS more than $10 million in contracts to deliver meals during the pandemic.
When it came time to account for how the money was spent, county officials alleged that VAS submitted general invoices such as “Services for Orange County Nutrition Deficit Program” that lacked any of the required details, such as when or how many meals were delivered.
VAS hired a firm, Pun Group, to conduct an audit and provide it to the county. Then, in July, Pun Group officials told the county that VAS had not provided enough information to complete the audit, that the association lacked internal controls, and that the upcoming report would describe the difficulties Pun Group had in attempting to conduct the audit. The next day, VAS terminated its contract with Pun Group.
In a statement, Rosen said he provided the county with a letter on Aug. 12 and an analysis from a certified public accounting firm — Buu D. Nguyen CPA — detailing VAS’s accounting.
The report, Rosen said, found that VAS had met its contractual obligations but lacked internal controls due to a staff shortage.
According to the letter, Buu D. Nguyen conducted an analysis of VAS’s finances in January. That analysis is not mentioned in the complaint.
In a previous interview, Winchell said VAS hired a firm he declined to name to conduct the audit after Pun Group closed in July. It’s unclear whether he was referring to Buu D. Nguyen, CPA.
Winchell told the Times that as of Monday he no longer represented VAS.
In the letter to the county, Rosen called the demand for the money back a “political witch hunt.”
Rosen also criticized the way the county verified whether promised meals were delivered, saying the county’s assessment of 275 participants was too limited. He questioned whether the county used bilingual investigators and argued that many participants would not cooperate with investigators because of their past experience with the communist government in Vietnam.
The county alleges that the nonprofit’s executives spent the money on companies controlled by VAS executives or close associates.
In April, May, June and July 2021, for example, a company named Aloha submitted invoices for $100,000 each to VAS. Around the same time, Perfume River Restaurant & Lounge also submitted 12 invoices totaling $108,000, according to the complaint.
However, those companies failed to provide the services listed in the invoices, according to the complaint. It also alleges that Pham, VAS’s CEO, owns an ownership interest in Perfume River Restaurant & Lounge, and that Aloha also did business as Perfume River Restaurant & Lounge.
In 2022 and 2024, Thinh Nguyen was appointed as CFO of VAS. In 2023, he was appointed as CEO and CFO of Aloha.
According to the complaint, the companies “were used as a mere shell to mask the wrongful conduct of the individual defendants.”
Between 2021 and 2024, according to the county, VAS transferred some of its assets to Pham, Do and Mai, who then purchased properties in Garden Grove, Buena Park, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley and Tustin.
Among those purchases, Do’s daughter reportedly purchased a three-bedroom home in Tustin in July 2023. According to real estate site Redfin, the home was purchased that month for $1,035,000.
