{"id":277302,"date":"2026-04-20T19:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/277302\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T19:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:57:11","slug":"former-fresno-arts-council-manager-pleads-guilty-in-measure-p-theft-sentencing-in-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/277302\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Fresno Arts Council Manager Pleads Guilty in Measure P Theft. Sentencing in August"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Fresno Arts Council manager Suliana Caldwell pled guilty Monday to stealing $1.8 million from the nonprofit, which included taxpayer money from Measure P.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice announced the plea, which came two weeks after a plea agreement<\/a> from Caldwell detailing the crime.<\/p>\n

A sentencing hearing will be on Aug. 10, when she could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the announcement stated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The FBI and Fresno Police Department are conducting the investigation, and assistant U.S. attorneys Cody Chapple and Joseph Barton are prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n

Embezzlement Picked Up with Measure P Money<\/p>\n

Between 2022 and 2026, Caldwell embezzled money that she used to gamble at local casinos, pay for vacations, and for other \u201cimproper personal expenses,\u201d according to court documents<\/p>\n

Her stealing increased after the Arts Council received its first injection of Measure P money, about $9.4 million, according to the plea agreement.<\/p>\n

As operations manager, Caldwell oversaw the nonprofit\u2019s bank accounts, including its payroll, grants, donations, and general finances. She disguised the withdrawals by falsifying financial documents, the announcement stated.<\/p>\n

Missing money left a $1.5 million shortfall in the Measure P arts grant fund, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said in a previous interview. The city will use general fund money to backfill that amount to make sure artists awaiting their grants are made whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Fresno Arts Council manager Suliana Caldwell pled guilty Monday to stealing $1.8 million from the nonprofit, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-277302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}