Update Jan. 29, 5:06 p.m.: This story was updated to include comments from CapRadio General Manager Frank Maranzino.
Update Jan. 29, 4:31 p.m.: This story was updated to include the fact that the Sacramento County Sheriff stated that Jun Reina turned himself in.
Former CapRadio General Manager Jun Reina has been criminally charged for allegedly embezzling money from the public media station for years.
Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho’s office announced Thursday Reina — identified as Fidias “Jun” Reina Jr., — faces multiple felony counts of embezzlement, grand theft and forgery stemming from his time overseeing CapRadio’s finances. The station is licensed to Sacramento State.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday Reina had turned himself in at the Sacramento County Main Jail.
Reina was hired by CapRadio in 2007 as its chief financial officer, and added chief operating officer to his title in 2013. He was subsequently promoted in 2020 to executive vice president and general manager, and resigned in 2023.
Prosecutors accuse Reina of “orchestrating a multi-year scheme” to divert CapRadio funds for personal use between Dec. 6, 2016, and June 12, 2022. The District Attorney’s office says Reina misappropriated approximately $1.33 million through unauthorized credit card charges and payments to his personal credit card accounts. The former GM also allegedly made 144 Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments — an electronic fund transfer system — from CapRadio’s bank account to his personal account.
Reina allegedly concealed the transactions through deceptive accounting, manipulated financial statements and forged documents. Prosecutors say a review of thousands of pages of financial records, bank statements and credit card transactions revealed “a deliberate pattern of fraud and concealment that exploited weaknesses in internal controls and obstructed oversight.”
“These charges allege a serious breach of trust,” Ho said in a statement. “When someone entrusted with financial oversight is alleged to exploit that position for personal gain, it undermines public confidence and harms the community the organization serves.”
Reina allegedly used the stolen money on lavish personal spending.
The criminal charges come after the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office submitted an investigation into Reina to the District Attorney’s office in September.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said at the time the case focused on charges of embezzlement and grand theft connected to ““the unauthorized use of Cap Radio [sic] funds for personal gain,” though it did not specify the individual targeted in its probe as Reina. The sheriff’s office first confirmed to CapRadio in August 2024 it was investigating the former general manager.
“After two years of restoring trust, strengthening our finances and ensuring accountability for past wrongs, today’s criminal charges against Jun Reina are an affirmation of our relentless pursuit of the truth under new leadership,” said CapRadio General Manager Frank Maranzino. “We are grateful for the diligence of local law enforcement and for the loyalty and true goodness of the Sacramento community.”
Reina was first identified in an August 2024 forensic examination conducted by the Roseville-based firm CliftonLarsonAllen and commissioned by Sac State. The examination found over $760,000 in unsupported payments — which could not be backed up by expense reports or receipts — with more than half of the payments made to one CapRadio executive which CapRadio reporters identified as Reina.
The station’s financial mismanagement was first uncovered in an initial September 2023 audit from the California State University Chancellor’s office which found years of financial issues at CapRadio. The audit was released a month after CapRadio laid off 12% of its staff and canceled four music shows.
Civil lawsuit continues
The criminal charges also come as a civil lawsuit against Reina is also ongoing. CapRadio filed the suit in December 2024, accusing the former executive of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars “to secretly enrich himself.”
The suit was filed in Yolo County Superior Court and was seeking at least $900,000 in damages. It accuses Reina of transferring more than $370,000 in CapRadio funds to his personal accounts from 2017 until his resignation in 2023, and using corporate credit cards for personal expenses.
These alleged expenses include international travel and vacations, college tuition for Reina’s children, fine dining and alcohol and personal vehicles. Reina is also accused of using station credit cards to make more than $100,000 in improvements to his West Sacramento home.
The station sought at least $900,000 in damages from Reina, and for his home to be placed in a trust. Last March Reina’s attorneys denied their client made any mistakes but said, “if an error was made” it was “made in good faith and unintentional.”
CapRadio received a nearly $1.3 million insurance settlement in August related to the alleged financial misconduct. The insurance company will take CapRadio’s place in the civil suit.
Disclosure: This story was reported and written by CapRadio Senior Producer Sarit Laschinsky. It was edited by Digital Editor Sally Longenecker.
Following NPR’s protocol for reporting on itself, no CapRadio corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted or broadcast.
You can read our independent ongoing coverage of financial issues at Capital Public Radio here.
Editor’s note: CapRadio is licensed to Sacramento State, which is also an underwriter.
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