Here’s the war memorial mixed up in OC fraud allegations

As Orange County officials sue Supervisor Andrew Do’s daughter and others for alleged fraud, among the claims are that they failed to finish a war memorial the county paid their nonprofit $1 million last October to build — and that they diverted much of the money to their own benefit, including to purchase multiple million-dollar homes in Orange County.

The Vietnam War memorial at the county’s Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley was announced last summer by Supervisor Do, who later posted a video featuring himself and others reviewing plans for it.

He then directed the $1 million to the Huntington Beach nonprofit Viet America Society (VAS) to design, build and maintain it — without publicly disclosing his daughter Rhiannon Do’s role as an officer of the group.

But the county claims it was a ruse.

In a lawsuit filed last week over the memorial money and another $9.4 million in funds meant to feed seniors and people with disabilities, the county alleges the nonprofit and its officers — including Rhiannon Do — “hatched a scheme to divert the Contract funds to improper and unlawful purposes, such as Individual Defendants’ own personal gain.”

When describing funds that were allegedly misused, the county lawsuit also claims there were “voluminous, unaccounted for ATM cash withdrawals.”

VAS' response

In response, VAS’ lawyer has said the lawsuit is wrong about many things, including the memorial. In a statement to reporters last week, he wrote that the work on it was done.

“That war memorial was built. It's there. The work was done,” wrote Mark Rosen, the attorney, at the time.

This week, he walked that back. He told LAist the structure has been completed but not the art. He said a grand opening for the memorial is scheduled for October.

In reference to the memorial and the other services performed by VAS through county contracts, Rosen said the county, in its lawsuit, "leaves the impression that none of the money was spent on anything, that they simply took the money and spent it elsewhere and that's just not the case."

Rosen added that the memorial didn’t cost the full $1 million and that he had been told by his clients that Viet America Society returned $150,000 of the funding to the county.

Orange County spokesperson Molly Nichelson said the county received the $150,000 check from VAS on Aug. 21, the same day this story was published. This comes after county attorneys demanded a refund earlier this month of any money not spent on their required purposes and threatened to sue.

What the memorial looks like now

On Tuesday, an LAist reporter went to the memorial, which sits next to a pond in an open, largely treeless area that used to be a golf course.

It is surrounded by a temporary chain link fence and covered by tarps.

On one end, it displays names and on the other, a dedication. Both the names and the dedication are visible underneath what appears to be a vinyl stencil. LAist was unable to get close enough to the monument to determine whether the etching had been completed.

Deep footprints have hardened in the mud immediately adjacent to one side of the memorial, and PVC pipes stick up out of the ground.

There is no landscaping around the monument and no path leading to it.

Rosen, the lawyer for VAS, shared a mockup with LAist of what the memorial is supposed to look like when finished.

The backstory

VAS is at the center of an ongoing LAist investigation into more than $13 million in contracts awarded to the nonprofit while Supervisor Do's adult daughter, Rhiannon Do, was listed in leading roles at VAS.

Supervisor Do never publicly disclosed his family tie. And most of the money — including all of the memorial funding — was awarded by Supervisor Do without ever appearing on public agendas, according to county records and a search of county agendas.

Supervisor Do has not responded to LAist’s request for comment over the last nine months, including on Wednesday. He has denied any wrongdoing in interviews with other media. State law does not require the disclosure of his family tie to the nonprofit he funded with taxpayer money. The state Legislature is advancing a bill that would change that.

In April, Rhiannon Do wrote LAist in an email that “insinuation that there was something untoward with the use of VAS funds” is “fabricated” and a “false narrative.”

She said she was “never an officer or director” at the nonprofit, but did not respond to multiple requests to explain public records and government filings by the group showing otherwise. Among those records are board of directors minutes showing her as an officer and director in October 2023, the same month the county paid the group $1 million for the memorial.

The response from supervisors

LAist reached out to all five county supervisors for comment on the monument and shared photos of its current status. Supervisor Doug Chafee said he hadn't seen the memorial since it's not in his district, and didn't want to comment without seeing it for himself.

Supervisor Katrina Foley said she didn't want to comment on the memorial photos.

We'll update the story if and when we get comments from other supervisors.

Last week, all of the supervisors — except Supervisor Do — weighed in supporting the county’s legal action against Rhiannon Do, Viet America Society and the other named parties in the lawsuit.

Supervisor Don Wagner said in a statement last week that he doesn’t take the county’s litigation lightly and that it came after all prior efforts had failed.

Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento has said Do should consider stepping down. Supervisor Foley has said the lawsuit highlights “rampant” abuse of taxpayer funds. And Supervisor Chaffee has said he’s deeply disturbed and outraged by the recent revelations about Viet America Society.

What the contract says

In September 2023, the county signed a $1 million agreement with VAS for the "design, construction, and maintenance" of a Vietnam War memorial to be built in Mile Square Regional Park. There was no other detail of the work VAS was required to perform.

The money directed to VAS came from federal pandemic relief funds controlled by the county, a portion of which were assigned to each supervisor to dole out in their respective districts to organizations supporting veterans and infrastructure projects, among other work.

The contract, which said it would terminate on June 30, 2024, specifies that the funds are to be used exclusively for the monument and any unused funds are to be returned to the county by July 31, 2026.

In the video posted by Supervisor Do last year, he said the monument was intended to be a smaller version of the Vietnam War memorial in Washington, D.C., and would also recognize the South Vietnamese army and allies.

When LAist visited the memorial site in January, workers were seen stacking cinder blocks into an apparent wall.

The monument is now covered in what looks like black marble.

Asked about the status of the project, Nichelson, the county spokesperson, told LAist that work on the project is ongoing.

“The latest update I received is that the project will be completed before the end of the year,” Nichelson told LAist in an email last Thursday.

Catch up on the investigation

In November 2023, LAist began investigating how millions in public taxpayer dollars were spent. In total, LAist has uncovered over $13 million in public money was approved to a little-known nonprofit that records state was led on and off by Rhiannon Do, the now 23-year-old daughter of Supervisor Do. Most of that money was directed to the group by Supervisor Do outside of the public’s view and never appeared on public meeting agendas. He did not publicly disclose his family ties.

Much of the known funding came from federal coronavirus relief money.

• Read the story that launched the investigation here.
• Since we started reporting, we’ve also uncovered the group was two years overdue in completing a required audit into whether the meal funds were spent appropriately.
• And we found the amount of taxpayer money directed to the nonprofit was much larger than initially known . It totals at least $13.5 million in county funding — tallied from government records obtained and published by LAist.
• After our reporting, O.C. officials wrote demand letters to the nonprofit saying millions in funding were unaccounted for. They warned it could be forced to repay the funds.
• And, we found the nonprofit missed a deadline set by county officials to provide proof about how funding for meals were spent.
• On Aug. 2, LAist reported O.C. officials were demanding the refund of more than $3 million in public funds awarded by Do to VAS and another nonprofit, Hand to Hand.
• Six days later, LAist reported Orange County officials had expanded demands for refund s of millions in tax dollars from the nonprofits and threatened legal action.
• On Aug. 15, LAist reported O.C. officials sued VAS and its key officers and associated businesses, including Rhiannon Do . The lawsuit alleges that county money was illegally used to purchase five homes and was converted into cash through ATM transactions.
• Then, on Aug. 19, LAist reported O.C. officials had announced a second lawsuit against Hand to Hand and its CEO to recover millions of taxpayer dollars that were directed by Supervisor Do.

How to watchdog local government

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention.

Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

• Read tips on how to get involved .
• The next regular meeting of the board is Tuesday, Aug. 27. You can check out the O.C. Board of Supervisors full calendar here .
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