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.”
About Lou:
Congressman Lou Correa is a longtime Orange County resident, with deep local roots. To this day, he lives only three miles from his childhood neighborhood in Anaheim. He is the son of working-class parents whose hard work gave him a chance at success, and has spent his career fighting to protect the American Dream, and ensure anyone can reach the middle class, just as he did. In 2016, Lou was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to continue his work by representing the community he has spent the past 20 years serving, fighting to give everyone access to the same opportunity he had. Congressman Correa is committed to working across party lines to strengthen the middle class and give everyone a shot at the American Dream by investing in education, healthcare, and our fading infrastructure, and has introduced legislation to protect the legal rights of immigrants, care for veterans, and fight against the wasteful spending of taxpayer money.
A bigger question is why nobody thought to follow-up on the funds. No receipts for meals? Until the accounting of funds is fixed, the next person is just going to be a Diaz or a Davis.