Despite recent demands from Orange County officials, Viet America Society will not return $2.2 million in COVID-relief funds after repeatedly missing county deadlines to show the money was properly spent, the organization’s lawyer said Tuesday, Aug. 6.
Sterling Scott Winchell, attorney for Viet America Society, said the group’s leadership has no intention of refunding the money directed to it for a meal program in 2020 and 2021 by First District Supervisor Andrew Do.
“There’s no way they’re getting that money back,” Winchell said. “The immediate plan is, no, the money was earned.
“The bottom line is these people did the work and the county is being … very extreme and punitive in the way they’re handling it,” he added. “They’re probably just trying to get our attention.”
The county demanded on July 26 that $2.2 million be returned by Aug. 26, noting that Viet America Society had fired the accounting firm that was conducting a federally required audit of the funds. That firm, the Pun Group, was quoted in a county letter saying Viet America Society “lacked internal controls, did not follow the federal uniform guidelines, did not follow the funding source guidance, and lacked records necessary to establish an audit trail.” The Pun Group planned to cite the deficiencies in an audit report before it was fired by VAS, county officials said.
Viet America Society has been late in filing its federal “single audit” for the fiscal years 2020-21 and 2021-22. The county had repeatedly requested the nonprofit provide the audit, beginning in September 2023. Viet America has been given multiple deadlines, the latest passing in late July.
Winchell said although the audit might find areas where Viet America Society’s recordkeeping could be improved, there was no cause for returning the funds. The audit is expected to be completed by a new accounting firm in a couple of weeks, he said.
“That’s not going to be a reason to give the money back, just because the accounting wasn’t done in a perfect way,” Winchell said. “If there was something where the money was misspent, then that would be another story, but that certainly wouldn’t be a finding in the audit.”
“There will be an audit completed and given to them, and it’ll probably have recommendations and findings and whatever they are, (Viet America Society) will obey them,” Winchell added.
The money, to provide meals to the elderly, is part of more than $10 million allocated to the nonprofit that employed Supervisor Do’s daughter, Rhiannon Do. A bulk of the funds came from the supervisor’s discretionary funds; there were also subcontracts voted on by the OC Board of Supervisors. Do did not publicly disclose his daughter’s link to the group, which does not violate county policy or state law, but has drawn criticism since becoming public.
The county demands for the money to be returned came as a shock, Winchell said, adding he has had no recent communication with county officials.
“We’re just doing what we can do over here to position ourselves in a way to deal with what (the county is) throwing at us,” Winchell said. “We definitely are considering all different alternatives to handle this problem that they basically created by demanding the money back.”
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It is unclear what the next steps are for the county or Viet America Society, but Winchell said the organization is keeping its options open.
An official response from Viet America Society is yet to be received by county officials, Fifth Supervisor Katrina Foley said Tuesday.
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“The fact that VAS counsel would refuse to return potentially misused taxpayer dollars is deeply disturbing,” Foley said. “If VAS cannot prove they spent our tax dollars to feed vulnerable residents then they need to return the money. It’s that simple.”
The county demand letters raise questions about how many people the organization was serving, as well as concerns about transactions found in the nonprofit’s financial ledgers for one of the contracts, including outside expenditures, such as $100,000 to Behavioral Health Solutions and a $5,000 rental payment to Huntington Partner. The letters also said that Viet America Society did not provide requested invoices for more than $329,500 in “Food Supply” expenses.
“We now have findings that VAS failed to meet the terms of their contract with the county. The findings included issues with their audit, a failure to correctly account for the funds, and lack of documentation,” Second Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said Tuesday. “It is our duty to ensure that the services paid for in fact reached the most vulnerable of our residents during such a difficult time for our communities.”
“This is a standard step in ensuring accountability for all county contracts once determinations of non-performance are made,” he added. “It is critical that we continue the process of oversight related to the use of these taxpayer funds.”
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