A federal judge sentenced former OC Supervisor Andrew Do to five years in prison on Monday morning after he pleaded guilty last year to accepting more than $500,000 in bribes to send over $10 million in contracts to nonprofits his daughter worked with.
“I do not believe a sentence any less than the maximum represents the seriousness of the crime,” U.S. District Judge James Selna said during Monday’s court hearing at the Ronald Reagan Courthouse in Santa Ana.
“Public corruption wreaks damage far beyond the monetary loss to the county,” Selna said.
Do’s attorneys argued he should receive less than three years in prison, with Do claiming in a letter to the judge he did not understand that he was receiving bribes at the time.
“I was blinded by a father’s seeing his daughter as being worth every penny of what they paid her,” Do wrote in a May 19 letter. “However, it is clear that I simply did not want to see the payments for what they were (a bribe) and now my bad judgment has derailed all that I had sought to achieve before I left public office.”
Do, through his attorneys, declined to comment after being sentenced on Monday.
The disgraced former OC Supervisor is expected to turn himself in to begin the five-year prison sentence on Aug. 15 and is expected to be on probation for three years after his release. There’s also an Aug. 11 hearing scheduled to determine the amount of restitution Do has to pay.
Do pleaded guilty last October to bribery, admitting that he and his two daughters received over $550,000 as he was setting up various contracts with two nonprofits intended to provide food to Little Saigon’s elderly during the pandemic.
The heads of both those nonprofits were charged with a variety of felonies last week for their role in bribing Do, with prosecutors alleging almost none of the money actually made its way to the intended programs.
[Read: Feds Charge More Conspirators in OC Corruption Scandal]
Instead, federal investigators found some of that money was used to buy homes for the nonprofit executives – including Do’s daughter, who isn’t facing criminal charges but has entered a diversion agreement.
[Read: Federal Prosecutors Recommend 5 Years in Prison for Former OC Supervisor Andrew Do]
”Mr. Do’s breach of his duty to those people is the real crime in this case,” Selna said at Monday’s court hearing.
It marks the second time a disgraced Orange County elected official has been sentenced to prison this year.
In March, former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu was sentenced to two months in prison and hit with a $55,000 fine for obstruction of justice by destroying records related to the now-dead Angel Stadium land sale and he also pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal officials along with wire fraud.
[Read: Disgraced Former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu Sentenced to Two Months in Prison]
Leading up to Monday, Orange County Supervisors repeatedly called for Do to face more charges, sending a letter to US Attorney Bill Essayli asking him to reexamine the plea deal and ensure that Do served a minimum of five years and paid back the funds.
[Read: OC Supervisors Want Andrew Do to Repay $10 Million From Bribery Scheme]
While county supervisors approved an outside audit of their finances last year, they’ve yet to move forward with a review of the contracts Do may have influenced.
[Read: OC Supervisors Approve Outside Audit After Bribery Scandal]
Do was never charged criminally before the federal case, but he was investigated multiple other times for his conduct across a two-decade political career in Orange County.
In November 2023, Do failed to disclose that his wife was a judge when he was called to speak as a witness at a trial, which triggered a controversial mistrial.
He resigned his seat in 2022 on the board of CalOptima, Orange County’s public health plan for the poor, amidst a state audit over executive pay hikes and other hiring practices that raised questions over a program he was involved with.
[Read: Top Official Resigns From OC’s Health Plan for the Poor Following Revelations of State Probe]
That same year, he was fined $12,000 by state regulators for trying to steer public lobbying contracts to his campaign donors.
[Read: Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do Faces $12,000 State Fine Over ‘Pay to Play’ Politics]
Do has faced questions for years over whether he even lives in the district he represents, questions which are now circulating again after federal agents raided a house he owns outside of his district.
[Read: OC Supervisor Andrew Do Accused of Residency Fraud Again as He Runs for Re-Election]
He was investigated by the DA’s office in 2017 for living outside his district, but no charges were ever filed, according to a legal complaint from a former DA investigator at the time.
[Read: DA’s Former Top Investigator Seeks Records of Pulido, Do, and Nguyen Probes]
The disgraced former supervisor also faced investigations from state agencies in 2020 over whether or not Do used his campaign accounts to launder money, but he was later cleared due to there being insufficient evidence he broke the law.
[Read: State Launches Money Laundering Investigation into Andrew Do and OC Republican Party]
State leaders also passed new rules banning elected officials from sending out taxpayer funded mailers with their names on it 60 days before an election after Do spent $1.2 million on mailers to voters in 2016, which state regulators did not pursue charges on.
[Read: State Will Not Pursue Enforcement Over Do’s 1.2 Million Taxpayer-Funded Mailers]
That investigation also came as there were questions about how Do’s then chief of staff Brian Probolsky was working full time on the supervisor’s reelection campaign while receiving a county salary.
[Read: Ethics Experts Question Campaign Work by Supervisor’s Top Aide]
Before his time on the board of supervisors, Do served on the Garden Grove City Council but resigned in 2011 amidst questions over whether or not he lived in the city.
[Read: Santana: OC Supervisor Andrew Do’s Political Journey That Ended in FBI Raids]
Do’s case was the second major federal corruption investigation to hit Orange County in recent years, after Do’s bribery scandal also marks the second major corruption scandal to hit Orange County in less than three years.
A federal probe surfaced in Anaheim in 2022 that eventually saw the Angel Stadium deal collapse, along with Mayor Harry resigning and agreeing to plead guilty to obstruction of justice for lying to federal investigators about trying to ram through the stadium sale for up to $1 million in campaign support.
[Read: What Does Another Corruption Scandal Mean for Orange County?]
Sidhu was eventually sentenced to two months in prison.