A string of businesses owned or backed by brothers with extensive real estate and healthcare holdings earned millions through contracts with government entities in Orange County under the supervision of disgraced former Supervisor Andrew Do. Those government contracts with Larry and Gary Nguyen’s businesses have raised questions and concerns from a range of public and private entities — including the Board of Supervisors, the county’s health plan for the poor, an insurance company and a whistleblower — an LAist investigation has learned.
One multimillion dollar contract — with the firm 360 Clinic to carry out COVID-19 testing during the pandemic — is the focus of a former employee’s whistleblower lawsuit that alleges executives engaged in billing fraud.
Another concerns a property deal in Tustin between the county’s low-income health plan, CalOptima, and one of the Nguyen brother’s companies, Yorba Myrtle LLC. Under an agreement signed by Do as CalOptima’s chair, the agency had been set to buy the property for $29.5 million — 60% more than the company paid less than a year earlier — when the deal fell apart.
There are at least two probes underway into these and more than a thousand of other contracts handled by Do at county agencies over the years:
- CalOptima has hired an outside firm to audit transactions approved while Do was on their board, including the Tustin property deal.Â
- The Orange County Board of Supervisors is also preparing to conduct a widespread forensic audit focused on contracts that awarded pandemic relief funds, including the COVID-19 testing contract with 360 Clinic. They expect to release a request for proposals by the end of May, the first step in hiring an outside firm to do the work.
Do pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge and is currently awaiting sentencing for accepting kickbacks from contracts intended to feed seniors during the pandemic.
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