Success with a hole

He was born Bun Tek Ngoy, in a village near Cambodia8217;s border with Thailand. In 1967, he was sent to Phnom Penh. At school, Ngoy fell in love with Suganthini Khoeun, whose father was a high-ranking official. Ngoy wrote to her. A week later, Suganthini wrote back. Eventually, her parents discovered Ngoy and threw him out. They arranged a meeting for the couple at a relative8217;s house, where Ngoy was expected to formally end their romance. Ngoy told Suganthini he didn8217;t love her. Then he pulled out a knife. 8216;8216;That is a lie,8217;8217; he plunged the blade into his belly. Suganthini8217;s father called an ambulance. Suganthini8217;s parents kept her locked in her room for days. She took an overdose of sleeping pills and fell into a coma. When the couple recovered, her parents finally allowed them to marry. When Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, Ngoy went to America and created the doughnut world. With three toddlers, they arrived penniless at Camp Pendleton.

Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin hired Ngoy as a janitor. He found a second job at a gas station near which a doughnut shop. Eager to learn the business, Ngoy joined as a trainee and took over a Winchell8217;s in Newport Beach. Ngoy bought his first doughnut shop from a couple who was retiring. He doesn8217;t remember how many stores he eventually started or bought.

By the mid-1980s, he was a millionaire. In 1985, he and Suganthini became US citizens. They took American names. He became Ted. She Christy. The Ngoys went to Las Vegas for the first time in 1977, saw Elvis Presley perform. Over the next few years, he went back every month or so 8212; betting ever-larger sums. Ngoy8217;s wife hated his gambling. 8216;8216;When you get to the table, you8217;re so emotional, evil in your body,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;You cannot resist against it.8217;8217; Word spread. Refugees who had sought his advice now avoided him, fearing he would ask for a loan. In 1990, he flew to Washington, DC, and joined a Buddhist monastery. After a few months, once back in Orange County, he bet more than ever.

Cambodia was planning its first elections in 1993, and Ngoy returned to run for office, and formed the Free Development Republican Party. Prime Minister Hun Sen made him an adviser on commerce and agriculture. Using his Republican Party connections, Ngoy successfully lobbied the United States for most-favored-nation trade status for Cambodia in 1995, helping create a modern garment industry and thousands of jobs.

When Christy returned to California for the birthday of a grandchild in 1999, Ngoy met a young woman and brought her to live in his house. To Christy, this was the final betrayal. She divorced him and didn8217;t return to Cambodia. Ngoy ended his political career abruptly in 2002, and flew back to Los Angeles, leaving behind his new wife and their two children, and what he had seen as his last chance at redemption.

He converted to Christianity and on Sundays, attends Parkcrest Christian Church in Long Beach. He spends his evenings alone, reading the Bible. A woman from his church lets him sleep in the screened porch outside her mobile home. Ngoy believes he is suffering God8217;s punishment for having betrayed the blood vow he made as a young man.

Christy Ngoy now owns a Peruvian restaurant in Irvine. One of their sons is a financial consultant; another is a computer technician. A daughter owns a 1950s-style restaurant in Orange County. Their fairytale romance is so distant, she said, it8217;s as if it happened to someone else. The stranger who crept into her room more than 35 years ago is a stranger again. Ted Ngoy has become a stranger even to himself. 8216;8216;I don8217;t know who I am right now,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;I say, 8216;Ted, who are you?8217; I really don8217;t know.8217;8217; 8212; LAT-WP