\t\t\t\t\tWhat’s at stake?<\/p>\n
The case was filed in October in Fresno County Superior Court but has not been served.<\/p>\n
A former program director is suing a Fresno-based community development company for wrongful termination and accusing its president \u2014 prominent former City Hall politician Oliver Baines \u2014 of whistleblower retaliation.<\/p>\n
Giulio Sanchez, a Fresno-based attorney representing the company \u2014 the Central Valley New Market Tax Credit Fund<\/a> \u2014 said the company wasn\u2019t aware of the lawsuit until contacted for comment by Fresnoland this week and confirmed the case has not been served.<\/p>\n Sanchez said the company denies all allegations of wrongdoing alleged in the case.<\/p>\n According to a civil complaint filed in late October in Fresno County Superior Court, Lillian Macias Weiland was a program manager at Central Valley NMTC in the fall of 2020 when, she says, Baines \u201chandwrote bonus checks to himself\u201d totaling $84,000.<\/p>\n Baines, according to the complaint, didn\u2019t disclose the payments, which, Weiland said, were only discovered after she reviewed company bank statements. The company was forced to change previously filed tax records, classifying the cash as taxable wages and, subsequently, required to pay additional penalties and interest on its payroll taxes.<\/p>\n Around February 2021, Baines allegedly \u201cagain objected to his wage classification (presumably to avoid tax liability),\u201d which Weiland \u201cunderstood could unlawfully reduce Mr. Baines\u2019s personal tax obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n Baines reportedly directed Weiland and others to reclassify the \u201cbonus checks\u201d as a loan.<\/p>\n Later that year, the lawsuit says, Central Valley NMTC received tax refunds in connection with the $84,000 that was now being called a loan.<\/p>\n \u201cThe $84,000 was added to loans on the books to Mr. Baines,\u201d the lawsuit says, noting that auditor reports say that Central Valley NMTC \u201cperiodically makes unsecured advances\u201d to Baines, described as \u201cnon-interest bearing and due on demand.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, Baines owed the company $341,676 in late 2022 and, the following year, he reportedly owed Central Valley NMTC $251,827.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese amounts included the $84,000,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n \u2018In good faith\u2019<\/p>\n Weiland said she believed the issue was settled until the summer of 2024 when bookkeepers running a routine audit questioned the status of the $84,000 loan.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Baines interceded, indicating that he was issued W-2 for the $84,000, and it should have been treated as wages rather than loan,\u201d according to Weiland\u2019s complaint, which she said contradicted previous filings and representations to regulators.<\/p>\n Weiland says she \u201cpromptly objected to Mr. Baines\u2019s attempt to reclassify the $84,000, warning that the change could misrepresent taxable income, violate federal tax law and audit standards.\u201d<\/p>\n Weiland claims she took her concerns directly to Baines and the audit team, providing a \u201cchronology of prior filings and explained that any change back to \u2018wages\u2019 would require re-amending all returns.\u201d<\/p>\n Exactly a week after Weiland provided her timeline report to the auditors, she alleges that Baines fired off an angry email, chastising her and effectively demoting her on the spot.<\/p>\n While her salary remained unchanged, the complaint says Baines immediately stripped her management authority, demoted her title from \u201cprogram director\u201d to \u201ccoordinator\u201d and instructed her not to communicate with \u201cany support staff\u201d without written permission from Baines. The alleged retaliation, the complaint says, limited Weiland to clerical duties.\u00a0<\/p>\n She says she was later specifically instructed not to communicate with the company\u2019s audit team.<\/p>\n She says the demotion was \u201cinconsistent with her prior performance evaluations.\u201d<\/p>\n Whistleblower retaliation?<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, Weiland took her concerns to Tom Richards, described in court records as the company\u2019s \u201cmanaging member.\u201d<\/p>\n Richards is also the chair and CEO of the Penstar Group, a Fresno-based development and real estate investment company. He also has been involved in numerous high-profile organizations, including chairing the board of directors of the California High Speed Rail Authority<\/a>.<\/p>\n Richards\u2019 role in the Central Valley NMTC Fund isn\u2019t clearly detailed in the complaint, but claims he had the \u201cauthority to investigate and correct the noncompliance with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n While both Baines and Richards are named in the complaint, neither man is listed as a defendant.<\/p>\n The lawsuit doesn\u2019t detail any actions or reactions that Richards may have taken, but says Weiland was subsequently fired on Oct. 23, 2024. The company told her that her job had been \u201celiminated.\u201d<\/p>\n But Weiland alleges that Baines had already been holding a grudge against her prior to the loan\/wages reporting issue that blew up over the summer of 2024. In January of that year, Weiland claims, she called out Baines\u2019 use of company credit cards for \u201cnon-business use, including airline charges for another local public figure who accompanied Mr. Baines on out-of-town trips.\u201d<\/p>\n Weiland said she \u201cdeclined to participate in conduct that would have violated federal regulations and tax law and fulfilled her affirmative obligation to comply with the standards for the audit.\u201d<\/p>\n Weiland is seeking unspecified damages for lost wages and wrongful termination.<\/p>\n Her attorney, John Migliazzo declined to comment on the case this week and did not respond to a followup question about whether and when the case might be served.<\/p>\n Back in the news<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time in recent years that Baines and the Central Valley NMTC Fund have seen their names in court documents accusing someone of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n According to federal court records, disgraced former congressman TJ Cox launched the Central Valley NMTC Fund in 2010 and, in 2016, used the company\u2019s name to fraudulently secure a loan for one of his other investment projects \u2014 Fresno\u2019s controversial sports complex at Granite Park.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors said Cox \u201cfabricated\u201d records to make it appear as if the tax credit company had agreed to back a $1.5 million loan for Cox\u2019s Granite Park investments. Cox would later plead guilty<\/a> to the charge but deny personally profiting from the scheme.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Cox received a one-year federal prison term<\/a> in connection with his fraud convictions after cutting a deal with prosecutors<\/a> that at least one local legal analyst has questioned.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s unclear what led to Cox\u2019s lower-than-anticipated prison term, a federal sentencing memorandum notes that Central Valley NMTC \u2014 and Baines specifically \u2014 told the FBI that the company had not been victimized by Cox.<\/p>\n In fact, court records show, Baines and the company, actually retroactively ratified the loan guarantee before the federal indictment dropped.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Granite Park later defaulted,\u201d Cox\u2019s sentencing memo notes, \u201cCVNMTC honored the guarantee and assumed the lender\u2019s position.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe loan was subsequently sold for full value as a fully secured commercial asset to Land Value Management, an unrelated entity that has never claimed it is a victim, has suffered no loss, and remains fully collateralized.\u201d<\/p>\n Land Value Management is also a Fresno-based real estate investment company owned by a prominent developer \u2014 James Huelskamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Huelskamp\u2019s company stepped in to save Granite Park\u2019s operator \u2014 also a former Cox business partner \u2014 from eviction proceedings and a lawsuit<\/a> over the park with Fresno City Hall.<\/p>\n