FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A federal judge has ruled that former Fresno Arts Council manager Suliana Cadwell must repay part of the $1.8 million she stole from the organization.<\/p>\n
The video above is from an earlier story and will be updated.<\/p>\n
Caldwell was ordered Tuesday to pay $1,177,913.92 to the city of Fresno, which is the amount of Measure P money stolen from the city. This ruling comes a month after she was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison.<\/a><\/p>\n The Fresno Arts Council has also been paid $901,844 by PayPal through fraudulent transactions that have been reversed and refunded to the non-profit.<\/p>\n The amount repaid is more than the $642,086 originally owed to the council. The FBI initially determined that the non-profit would receive restitution because those funds came from other sources and were owned and controlled by the Fresno Arts Council.<\/p>\n It’s unclear why the restitution payout from PayPal to the Fresno Arts Council is now higher following Tuesday’s ruling. Representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office also added that PayPal has declined all other requests made by the government for information related to this case.<\/p>\n Fresno city manager Georgeanne White has now threatened legal action for the non-profit’s restitution, saying “the arts council has given zero to the city.”<\/p>\n In court on Tuesday, Caldwell reiterated her statement from her sentencing hearing, saying, “I will do everything in my power to restore what’s due back to the city of Fresno.”<\/p>\n Investigators said Caldwell abused her position as operations manager by wiring money to herself through PayPal approximately 300 times over more than four years.<\/p>\n For news updates, follow Vincent Camarillo on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n