RISE AND FALL
Ted Ngoy, subject of the new documentary “The Donut King,” fled the Cambodian genocide to America, where he built a donut empire. He writes about his extraordinary journey.
Ted Ngoy is a Cambodian-American entrepreneur and former owner of a chain of doughnut shops in California. He was nicknamed the "Donut King."
Ted Ngoy was born in Sisophon, Cambodia. He went on to marry Suganthini Khoeun, the daughter of a high-ranking government official. Ngoy worked at various jobs, including as a travel agent and tour guide, before joining the military in 1970. Through the maneuvering of his brother-in-law, chief of police and briefly future president of Cambodia, Sak Sutsakhan, Ngoy was promoted to the rank of major and appointed military attache at Cambodia's embassy in Thailand. In 1975, Ngoy fled the Khmer Rouge with his wife and three children to Camp Pendleton, a military base in Southern California.
After arriving in Orange County, California, Ngoy started working in the doughnut business. By 1987, Ngoy owned 32 Christy's Doughnuts locations, largely accomplished by living out of a motorhome allowing him and his family to travel up and down the state of California establishing new locations. 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 62 locations throughout California.
Ngoy currently lives in Phnom Penh, working in the real estate.