Former Fresno Arts Council employee pleads guilty to fraud in $1.8 million ‘scheme’<\/a><\/p>\nCaldwell’s attorney revealed in a federal courtroom that she struggles with alcohol and gambling addiction, and prosecutors say much of the money was gambled away or used to fund vacations.<\/p>\n
“I can’t speak to exactly what Ms. Caldwell would say. She’s very upset. It’s just unfortunate all around for the artists, for the community, for Ms. Caldwell and for her family,” said Caldwell’s attorney, Kevin Rooney<\/p>\n
The damage from Caldwell’s theft is still being assessed.<\/p>\n
More than 30 Measure P recipients had their funds frozen when the crime was discovered in February.<\/p>\n
“I really feel for the arts community right now, because they have taken a hit and it seems like nothing is not getting done fast enough,” said PRAC chair Kimberly McCoy.<\/p>\n
Caldwell’s actions interrupted the second cycle of funding distribution.<\/p>\n
But as the third cycle prepares to open for application, questions still remain.<\/p>\n
“I find it hard to proceed on with cycle three when we still have all this other stuff going on with cycle two,” McCoy said.<\/p>\n
Caldwell could face up to 20 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n
Her sentencing is scheduled for August 10.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Uncertainty still surrounds the future of Measure P funding following the embezzlement of more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[120049,120048,53107,120047,112,80880,114,113,90093,25390,120046,120045,114802,294],"class_list":["post-278270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-120049","tag-eaac","tag-embezzlement","tag-expanded-access-to-arts-and-culture-grant-program","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-arts-council","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-fresno-parks","tag-measure-p","tag-over-1-million","tag-recreation-and-arts-committee","tag-suliana-caldwell","tag-timely"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278270","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=278270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}