Money Is at Root of New Split Among Vietnamese

It was a passionate plea for a noble cause. And so the money--small change and large checks--flowed in.

Altogether, more than $250,000 poured into the paper-box coffers of the Committee for Just Cause for a Free Vietnam during anti-communist protests in Little Saigon earlier this year. Members of Orange County’s Vietnamese emigre community, enraged by a shopkeeper’s display of communist icons, gave freely.

The overwhelming response heralded what some believed would be a new unity for a long-fractured Vietnamese American community.

But instead, five months later, the money has become the focus of another controversy: The group’s leader, Tuan Anh Ho, has been called upon to publicly account for the money’s use.

Ho said the donations, which he says totaled $279,680, are safely held in a bank. But he has yet to open the books to the public.

His refusal to provide an accounting has stirred the ire of an already suspicious community. Some critics have questioned Ho’s recent trips in the wake of the protests around the country and to Europe and Australia to promote the work of the group.

“He has refused to answer the public’s questions. Now people are worried that he has hidden away the money,” said Thang Ngoc Tran, president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, a nonprofit social service organization.

“It might be coincidence [about the trips and other expenditures], but people have a right to question what happened to their money.”

Last month, several hundred people crowded into the Westminster civic center for a meeting called by the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, demanding answers from Ho and then slapping a vote of no-confidence on his leadership.

In the past, the Committee for Just Cause has served as the political arm for the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, which as a social service organization officially didn’t participate in political activities.

The two groups had worked very closely together in the past on anti-communist demonstrations, with the Vietnamese Community picking up the expenses for Ho’s group’s work, said Tran. That included its work during the February and March protests that drew tens of thousands of people.

But that relationship has soured over the last several months since Ho registered his group March 10 with the California secretary of state’s office as an independent nonprofit.

Ho says he plans to provide a full accounting--but only after meeting with other leaders in the group late this month. His critics are merely jealous troublemakers, he said.

“I can reassure you all the money is accounted for,” he said. “Every time we have used it, we kept the receipts.”

Ho acknowledges that some money has been spent on his working trips, such as $2,700 for the Australia trip and $2,530 for a Washington, D.C. trip. But visits to Germany, France, England, Texas and Hawaii were paid either from his own pocket or through Vietnamese groups that invited him to speak, Ho said.

The bulk of the money, Ho said, is being used to buy a building that will serve as the committee’s headquarters as well as a community center. He said his group is in escrow on a two-story 4,400-square-foot commercial building at the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Garden Grove Boulevard.

The decision to use the funds for a building was his, said Ho, who runs a sign business.

“We’ve been fighting communism for 24 years now, and we’ve never had a place to do it. I’ve had this idea for a long time.”

Once the deal on the building is final, by the end of August, he plans to respond to all the allegations raised against him, Ho said.

But that is too little too late, said community members. Already, a group is circulating a petition asking for the return of the money.

“Nobody wants to see that money abused,” said Long Cu Vo, who works with Saigon Cali Radio. “ People donated that money to fight communism. If he has nothing to hide, then he should come forward.”

From a legal standpoint, Ho’s group is entitled to use the money as it chooses, said lawyer and activist Van Thai Tran. Donors have no say over allocation of cash that was given with no restrictions.

But reestablishing community trust is another matter, Tran said.

“I think the jury’s still out on whether funds have been misused,” said Tran. But “there’s no doubt he has done a poor job of assuring the community that the money is in good hands.”