{"id":277490,"date":"2026-04-20T22:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T22:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/277490\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T22:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T22:03:10","slug":"fresno-arts-council-operations-manager-pleads-guilty-in-1-8m-wire-fraud-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/277490\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno Arts Council operations manager pleads guilty in $1.8M wire fraud case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 A Fresno woman has admitted to stealing more than $1.8 million from the Fresno Arts Council. <\/p>\n<p>Federal prosecutors charged 46-year-old Suliana Caldwell with wire fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Caldwell was the council\u2019s operations manager from 2021 to early 2026, overseeing finances like bank accounts, payroll, and grants. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Former operations manager for the Fresno Arts Council, Suliana Caldwell,{ }has been identified in a federal embezzlement case involving nearly $1.8 million. (File Photo of the Fresno Arts Council website via Wayback Machine)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/78d6eb19-fc43-49b2-82cb-a19dba75fa9f-ArtsCouncil1.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Former operations manager for the Fresno Arts Council, Suliana Caldwell,{ }has been identified in a federal embezzlement case involving nearly $1.8 million. (File Photo of the Fresno Arts Council website via Wayback Machine)<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors say she began making unauthorized withdrawals in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>They say the amount grew significantly after the Arts Council began handling millions in Measure P funds \u2014 a voter-approved tax supporting parks, trails, and the arts.<\/p>\n<p>To cover it up, Caldwell falsified financial reports and presented them as accurate to leadership and local officials.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities say she used the stolen money for gambling, vacations, and other personal expenses.<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s set to be sentenced on August 10th and could face up to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 A Fresno woman has admitted to stealing more than $1.8 million from the Fresno&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-277490","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\/277490","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=277490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}