Elected Officials Demand Investigation into Michelle Steel’s Andrew Do-esque Scheme to Misdirect $1.2M in Taxpayer Dollars to Her Own Campaign Print Shop that Manipulated Community Meal Program for Needy Seniors

Nov

2024

PRESS RELEASE

Elected Officials Demand Investigation into Michelle Steel’s Andrew Do-esque Scheme to Misdirect $1.2M in Taxpayer Dollars to Her Own Campaign Print Shop that Manipulated Community Meal Program for Needy Seniors

Political for-profit print shop had never administered a grant program, mismanaged mandatory filings, and charged 3x more per meal than other non-profits awarded grants

Garden Grove, CA — Today, federal, state and local officials are calling for an investigation into Michelle Steel’s misconduct in response to new bombshell reporting from NPR’s LAist that exposed Steel’s latest self-dealing scandal: misdirecting $1.2 million taxpayer dollars for a meal program meant to feed low-income seniors to her own campaign’s mail and print shop. As a reminder, the political mail vendor, DTN Tech, had no experience ever administering a federal grants program, charged taxpayers “more than triple the amount per meal” than comparable programs in other districts, and refused to make meals available for home delivery to these needy seniors like every other program.

Steel’s scheme shares some damning connections with the bribery and corruption crimes committed by her longtime political ally, Andrew Do, who this week pled guilty to conspiring to steal millions of dollars meant to feed needy seniors. Notably, Do’s district was “the only one besides Steel’s to select a vendor without a known track record of providing taxpayer-funded meals.”

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento:

“Michelle Steel’s misuse of taxpayer dollars to enrich her political allies is outrageous, and confirms my insistence that external investigations of federal pandemic-related funds received by the County must also be conducted.”

Congresswoman Judy Chu in a Twitter post:

“Michelle Steel funneled govt $ meant to help feed those in need to her campaign printer. This kickback meant taxpayers paid more per meal than the rest of Orange County. Corruption has a price. We paid it for Michelle when she was Supervisor.”

Congressman Scott Peters in a Twitter post:

“Michelle Steel misdirected $1.2M in taxpayer funds meant to feed low-income seniors to her campaign’s for-profit mail vendor. This political print shop charged 3x the normal rate. This is a gross abuse of public trust, and there must be an investigation.”

State Senator Tom Umberg in a Twitter thread:

“As a former federal prosecutor, I worked to tackle corruption by elected officials and organizations who benefit on the public expense. The pervasive misuse of funds by Orange County officials — former Mayor Harry Sidhu, Supervisor @joinandrewdo, and now Congresswoman (former Supervisor) @MichelleSteelCA — are real consequences of a lack of checks and balances and proper oversight in local government.

“The Orange County Board of Supervisors must take serious and extensive action to uncover any other wrongdoing and ensure this cannot happen again. The people of Orange County deserve trustworthy stewards of taxpayer dollars.”

State Senator Dave Min:

“The alleged misuse of $1.2 million meant to feed low-income seniors for political patronage is just another example of the corruption endemic to the Orange County Republican Party. Whether it’s Michelle Steel and Andrew Do misusing pandemic funds for their own ends, or it’s Scott Baugh trying to steer contracts and public assets to his political benefactors, enough is enough. This latest example of GOP corruption must be fully investigated. Orange County deserves better than officials who treat public service like their own cash machine.”

Orange County Democratic Party Chair Ada Briceno in a Twitter post:

“Michelle Steel’s use of taxpayer dollars to pay her campaign’s mail firm while she was an Orange County Supervisor is outrageous, even by her standards. She reportedly directed over a million dollars - meant for low-income seniors - to her own campaign’s mail firm, which wasted taxpayer funds that were meant to feed our seniors. Orange County has had enough of Steel’s self-serving schemes. Derek Tran is the clear choice for CA-45, someone who believes in transparency and respect for taxpayer dollars. We demand a formal investigation into Steel’s abuse of office, and we’re standing with Derek Tran to finally bring honest, ethical leadership to this district.”

Background:

An independent audit found that the company was over three years late in submitting mandatory reports on their spending and paid itself the highest allowable amount in administrative costs – while LAist discovered that “at least two-thirds of the county funding…went to restaurants” that were paying clients of Michelle Steel’s campaign print shop.

In June of 2020, Steel and Do each voted to authorize each Orange County Supervisor to reward more than $1 million in federal CARES Act funding for programs of their choice, using a procedure that, according to LAist, “sidestepped the county’s usual transparency for taxpayer money, and allowed supervisors to make those spending decisions without public votes or competitive bidding.” This vote was listed as the first overt act in Andrew Do’s guilty plea documents. Instead of choosing an experienced non-profit organization that could quickly and competently stand up such a program, Michelle Steel selected her campaign’s for-profit mail and print vendor.

O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer called the funding method Supervisors Steel and Do used for their meals program a “horrible mistake by the board” that led to an unbelievable “lack of oversight,” – and Michelle Steel took full advantage. To make matters worse, not only did the mail firm receive tens of thousands of dollars from Steel’s campaign and thousands of taxpayer dollars from her congressional office…but also major business from Andrew Do.

Key findings from LAist’s reporting:

When she was an Orange County supervisor in 2020, Rep. Michelle Steel directed a $1.2 million taxpayer-funded contract to a marketing and printing company that she was using at the time for her congressional election campaign mailers. The contract was for providing dinner meals to needy seniors in her district, at a cost of $24 per meal.
Meal costs in most other O.C. supervisor districts ranged between $7.50 per meal and $11 per meal.
The company Steel selected had no prior experience with this type of government funding, according to an audit required by the county.
At least two-thirds of the public funds the company paid for meals went to restaurants that have hired the company as a printing client, according to billing records submitted to the county and social media posts by the company reviewed by LAist.
The taxpayer money came from the federal government and was authorized by the supervisors during the pandemic without public votes or competitive bidding.

Michelle Steel’s unwavering support for Andrew Do is well-documented, with numerous public statements lauding his “leadership” and “character.” When news broke in August of an FBI investigation into the Orange County Supervisor and Michelle Steel endorser, Steel’s spokesperson declined to answer the Orange County Register’s questions about Do, including if Steel had recently been in contact with him. Do and Steel have been allies for years, raising serious concerns about her judgment. Here are just a few examples of Steel and Do’s longstanding relationship, and effusive praise for Do over the years.

READ THE LAIST REPORT HERE

###

Army Veteran Derek Tran is a DCCC Red To Blue candidate running in California’s 45th Congressional District which encompasses portions of Orange and Los Angeles Counties in Southern California. A majority-minority district, the District has the second largest AAPI population (36.97%) of any Congressional District, and the largest Vietnamese community in the country. President Biden won the current district lines by +6 points and it has a +6 point Democratic registration advantage. It includes all or part of the Cities of Garden Grove, Westminster, Cerritos, Buena Park, Placentia, Hawaiian Gardens, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Artesia, Los Alamitos, La Palma, Brea, Lakewood, and Fullerton, as well as the unincorporated community of Rossmoor.

Use of Derek Tran's military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Dept. of Defense or U.S. Army.