Ted Ngoy was born in the Cambodian village of Sisophon near the country's border with Thailand to a Chinese immigrant family.
19 Facts About Ted Ngoy
1.
2.
Ted Ngoy's father left him when he was 5 years old and was left to be raised alone by his single mother, who was from Shantou, Guangdong.
3.
In 1967, Ted Ngoy was sent by his mother to study in the capital, Phnom Penh, where he met and married Suganthini Khoeun, the daughter of a high-ranking government official.
4.
Ted Ngoy worked at various jobs, including as a travel agent and tour guide, before joining the military in 1970.
5.
In 1975, Ted Ngoy fled the Khmer Rouge with his wife and three children to Camp Pendleton.
6.
Ted Ngoy secured work as a janitor with Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin, California.
7.
Ted Ngoy subsequently received training through an affirmative action program to increase minority hiring within the Winchell's chain of doughnut shops, and managed a store in Newport Beach where he employed his wife and nephew.
8.
Ted Ngoy became tired running doughnut shops on his own and decided to train and lease shops to his relatives and employ Cambodian refugees.
9.
Ted Ngoy saw an opportunity to expand his business and help the large number of poor, unassimilated Cambodians who had fled the Khmer Rouge to the United States.
10.
Ngoy's fortunes improved dramatically, such that by the mid-1980s Ngoy had amassed millions of dollars through his expanding doughnut shop empire, reported as 50 locations throughout California.
11.
Ted Ngoy had become an example to other Cambodian immigrants, who began to follow his business model for their own entrepreneurial endeavors.
12.
Ted Ngoy would make a habit of returning monthly to watch performers such as Tom Jones, Diana Ross, and Wayne Newton and indulging in the incentives pit bosses of major casinos offered all the while spending even larger sums at the card tables.
13.
Ted Ngoy would forge her signature on checks and even borrow money from relatives who leased stores from him.
14.
Ted Ngoy formed the Free Development Republican Party, believing that he could show others the path to wealth and hoping that being a politician might stymy his gambling addiction.
15.
Ted Ngoy did not fare well in either the 1993 or 1998 parliamentary elections, but his friend, Prime Minister Hun Sen, made him an advisor on commerce and agriculture.
16.
When his wife visited California for the birthday of their grandchild in 1999, Ngoy began an affair with a young woman; Christy divorced him soon after and has not since returned to Cambodia.
17.
Ted Ngoy dissolved his party and accused the government of corruption.
18.
Ted Ngoy is the subject of the 2020 documentary film The Donut King.
19.
Ted Ngoy was hesitant to return to California for the film; he was estranged from his children and former friends.