October 22, 2024

CORREA STATEMENT ON RESIGNATION OF ANDREW DO

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif.  Today, Representative Lou Correa (D-CA) released the below statement following the resignation of Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do. Earlier this year, Correa requested both the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury to investigate these allegations of wrongdoing.

“This is a sad day for Orange County, for the hard-working taxpayers who call Orange County home, and for our democracy,” Correa said. “As elected officials, we are stewards of taxpayer funds. Corruption leads to loss of confidence in all our democratically elected officials. These federal funds were COVID relief funds meant to feed our hungry Orange County neighbors, seniors, and others, through the American Rescue Plan Act. They were to help the needy—and it’s clear these funds never made it to those who needed them. This is morally reprehensible and criminal. While I’m relieved to see justice is being served, everyone involved in this scheme to defraud taxpayers must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

In August, Correa wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen expressing “concern regarding allegations of improperly managed public funds by Viet America Society (VAS) after it failed to provide necessary documentation to the County of Orange (County) for how it spent federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) COVID relief funds,” requesting that their “Departments [to] investigate this matter in order to determine whether any federal laws were broken or any federal funds misappropriated.”