Newly seated Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen has accused disgraced predecessor Andrew Do of depleting district funds reserved for special events, leaving no money to host a county Tet Festival this year at Mile Square Park.

Nguyen is calling for an internal investigation of Do’s decision to spend three-quarters of the $200,000 fund on the four-hour Moon Festival Sept. 14 in Fountain Valley while he was under federal investigation. That’s more than three times as much as he spent the previous year on the same festival.

With the Moon Festival and other unrelated expenditures, Do left Nguyen with only $14,900 in the fund until July 1, 2025.

“He spent almost everything he had before the newly elected supervisor could be seated, making sure the county couldn’t give constituents a Tet Festival celebration in February,” Nguyen said. “His goal was to spend out the money. … I think it’s more of a final flipping the community off.”

Tet, the celebration of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, is on Wednesday. Other events in Orange County will mark Tet, but the county’s annual three-day festival, free of charge, was considered one of the largest.

“We’re getting calls into our office. The county is expecting it. Thousands of people show up every year,” said the First District supervisor, who formerly served as a state senator. “(But) he’s wiped out the entire budget … knowing he was under investigation, he was going to dole it out any way he can.”

Do, who already pleaded guilty in federal court, is scheduled to be sentenced in March for taking more than $550,000 in bribes to direct $10 million in pandemic funds to the nonprofit Viet America Society, where his daughter worked. The money was supposed to be used on feeding shuttered seniors, with $1 million going toward a Vietnam War memorial. Only $1.4 million was spent on the meals and the war memorial at Mile Square Park was never completed, according to an investigation by the FBI, Orange County District Attorney’s Office, IRS and other federal agencies.

The probe showed that a large part of the money was spent on real estate investments, including a $1 million house for Do’s daughter, Rhiannon Do, who under an agreement with federal prosecutors is not facing any jail time in exchange for her cooperation. Money also allegedly went to Do’s other adult daughter. Do, who faces a maximum five years in prison, was scheduled to be termed out of office, but resigned in October. Nguyen won election to his post and was seated in December.

Do did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

News that there would be no county Tet celebration this year surprised community members who now will have to look elsewhere to celebrate.

“That’s terrible. We feel bad,” said Buu Ly, 73, of Huntington Beach. “Every year we have it. We take the family to celebrate. It’s very important for us. (Now) it’s too bad for my family and for the community.”

Fountain Valley Mayor Ted Bui said he reached out to Nguyen to find out the plans for this year’s county festival.

“She basically said, ‘I’m sorry, Mayor Bui, there’s nothing left in the reserve that was supposed to be allocated for this,’ so therefore she couldn’t host an event,” Bui said, calling the lack of cash “unusual.”

Councilmember Kim Constantine said she was wondering what happened with the county festival, after seeing no advertising or mention in social media.

“On some levels, it’s disappointing, sure,” Constantine said. “I’m almost at a loss for words. It’s a nice cultural festival that people have enjoyed.”

Numbers released by Nguyen show that Do spent $152,250 on September’s Moon Festival, compared to $44,509 in 2023 and $20,696 the year before.

Nguyen said she wants a probe into Do’s Moon Festival expenditures in 2024, including $60,000 for entertainment with 2TMedia; $30,000 for advertisements with Radio Bolsa; $9,585 for mailers and banners with DTN Tech, which also handled Do’s campaign mailers; and $50,000 for sound and lighting with Premier Production. Nguyen said Premier Production is owned by Robert Pham, who she said is the brother of Peter Pham, president of Viet America Society. Someone answering the phone at Premier Production hung up Monday when called for comment.

Nguyen wants to know what the vendors provided for the money they received to determine if the funds were misspent.

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While the county-sponsored Tet Festival is on hiatus, there are other events planned by various sponsors to celebrate Tet, some charging admission.

On Tuesday, Jan. 28, the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda will host a Lunar New Year celebration starting at 5 p.m. On Wednesday, Jan. 29, the Asian Garden Mall in Westminster will help ring in the Year of the Snake with its firecracker celebration at noon. The Union of Vietnamese Student Associations of Southern California, better known as UVSA, is holding its three-day Tet Festival at Garden Grove Park starting on Friday, Jan. 31. And the big Westminster Tet parade will be Saturday, Feb. 1, with opening ceremonies at 8:30 a.m.