Special report: One-third of the stolen funds wasn’t even Measure P money. So where did it come from?

TMR EXCLUSIVE

A SPECIAL REPORT BY DOUG HOAGLAND

At 12:43 a.m. on June 18, 2022, Suliana Caldwell began embezzling money from the Fresno Arts Council. She stole $500 in the early hours of that morning, and then another $500 the next evening.

In the end, $1.82 million would go missing from accounts at the Arts Council.

Update (Sept. 8): Another bizarre twist: It turns out that the Fresno Arts Council and PayPal are stiffing the city on embezzled Measure P funds

Caldwell, operations manager at the Arts Council, would continue her white-collar crime spree until Jan. 24, 2026. Her criminal activity might have remained hidden longer if she had been in the Arts Council office in downtown Fresno one day in January of this year.

Her chance absence would lead to a story that has rocked Fresno. But the public still doesn’t know the full story because important questions about accountability and due diligence remain unanswered by a silent board of directors at the Arts Council and a combative City Manager at City Hall.

Against that backdrop, The Munro Review has reviewed court documents and interviewed Caldwell’s attorney to glean so-far-unreported details about the embezzlement that went on for more than three years with no one apparently the wiser.

Now, in a late-breaking development, the FBI has completed tracing the embezzled $1.82 million. About two-thirds of it came from the City of Fresno’s Measure P. And, despite ongoing reimbursement efforts involving PayPal, the City has not received any of the $1.17 million that is its share of the embezzled money, federal authorities say.

The other one-third of the $1.82 million came from other accounts at the Arts Council. Federal authorities say PayPal, which Caldwell used in the embezzlement scheme, has reimbursed the Arts Council because her transactions were fraudulent. But most startling is this assertion: The Arts Council has told federal authorities that PayPal has given it back more than the $642,086.08 that the government believes the Arts Council is owed.

Keep track of Measure P: Reporter Doug Hoagland won a 2026 Gruner Award (the highest honor in Valley journalism) for best news story for staying on top of Measure P. See past coverage in The Munro Review’s comprehensive archive

All of these details are revealed in documents filed in federal court on Sept. 2 and Sept. 4 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which successfully prosecuted Caldwell for felony wire fraud. The information adds fresh momentum to one of Fresno’s biggest stories of 2026, and it comes only days before a Sept. 8 hearing in federal court concerning restitution by Caldwell.

At that hearing, the government will not seek restitution for the Arts Council because of the PayPal reimbursements it has already received. Reimbursement to the Arts Council has been a mystery of sorts. “The FAC [Fresno Arts Council] receives no heads up, money just appears in their account,” according to an unclassified FBI document filed in federal court.

The scheme unravels

Caldwell’s downfall apparently began that day in January 2026 when she was out of the office and a financial matter came up that she would have normally handled. Perhaps, if she’d been there, she could have done something to escape detection.

Instead, her defense attorney, Kevin Rooney, explained in a Sentencing Memorandum what happened: “Another employee issued checks from the bank account from which Ms. Caldwell had stolen. The checks bounced and an investigation followed.”

Rooney’s low-key narrative doesn’t match the firestorm triggered by the embezzlement. Caldwell was fired. The City of Fresno fired the Arts Council from administering taxpayer-funded Measure P arts grants. Then, Lilia Gonzáles Chávez, the longtime executive director of the Arts Council – described as a friend of Caldwell’s in a court document – left her position.

Now, Caldwell is headed to federal prison in October after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud.

Meanwhile, the Arts Council board of directors hired a new executive director but refuses to answer questions about its internal financial safeguards during the embezzlement and since then.

And, City Manager Georgeanne White boasts that the City did nothing wrong in overseeing the Arts Council’s handling of Measure P’s millions. But White doesn’t answer questions about whether the City could have provided stronger oversight.

It’s not over

Five important questions about the embezzlement – and their implications for the Fresno Arts Council and the City of Fresno – remain unanswered.

• Even with Caldwell preparing fraudulent financial statements to cover up her crime, how was she able to get away with it for so long? Could Gonzáles Chávez or key members of the Arts Council board have uncovered the embezzlement earlier if they’d provided greater oversight?

• If PayPal has reimbursed the Arts Council – actually over-reimbursed, according to federal authorities – why hasn’t the City of Fresno been reimbursed the Measure P taxpayer money that was lost in the embezzlement? Caldwell also used PayPal to steal the Measure P money.

• Did the City of Fresno miss opportunities to make sure the Arts Council could properly handle money from Measure P, the 30-year, ⅜-cent sales tax increase that Fresno voters approved, in part, to boost arts in the community? City Hall entrusted $15 million to the Arts Council in 2023 and 2024, years in which Caldwell was embezzling.

• What other accounts besides Measure P did Caldwell steal from, and how did the missing $642,000 from those accounts affect operations and other programs at the Arts Council? And how is it that no officials at the Arts Council apparently noticed that more than $642,000 had disappeared from those accounts?

• Why do Olga Gutierrez De Nuñez, president of the board of directors at the Arts Council, and City Manager White keep refusing to answer questions from The Munro Review, which has reported extensively on Measure P and the Arts Council for almost four years?

Caldwell will soon be on her way to federal prison, but the public still does not have all the facts from officials who remain in their positions.

How it began

In September 2011, Caldwell started volunteering at the Arts Council after a friend was appointed as executive director, according to defense attorney Rooney in his Sentencing Memorandum. That court document doesn’t identify the friend, but Gonzáles Chávez became executive director at that time.

Then 10 years later, Caldwell was hired as operations manager at the Arts Council, where Gonzáles Chávez was still in charge. The following year – 2022 – Caldwell made a fateful discovery that would underpin her embezzlement scheme.

She realized she could transfer Arts Council money to her PayPal account, and “that realization came about for a completely legitimate purpose,” defense attorney Rooney said in his Sentencing Memorandum. “The Arts Council needed to pay a vendor and Ms. Caldwell could not get the Executive Director’s signature needed to issue the check.”

So she transferred the Arts Council funds to her PayPal account in a “quick workaround to get funds to a legitimate vendor,” Rooney said. “And Ms. Caldwell realized she could also keep funds transferred to her PayPal account.”

PayPal is a digital payment service platform that allows people and businesses to send money, pay online and make in-store purchases without sharing sensitive financial details, according to AI. One feature allows a person to send money to another party or request payments from others.

(Why PayPal has now reimbursed the Arts Council is puzzling to Don Simmons, who has taught about nonprofit organizational leadership in Fresno State’s Humanics Program. He also runs a consulting firm. “I can’t fathom that PayPal had any responsibility in this situation. Unless it’s an attempt at good marketing for them,” Simmons said.)

Exactly when Caldwell started stealing Arts Council funds isn’t known, but it was no later than June 2022, the U.S Attorney’s Office said in a court document. Before getting caught, she would make more than 300 unauthorized transfers from accounts belonging to the Arts Council to her own accounts.

Caldwell’s accounts were in her maiden name, and Gonzáles Chávez, the then-executive director, knew her by that name, according to defense attorney Rooney.

Caldwell’s motivation is a matter of contention. Rooney said she stole to support alcohol and gambling addictions, while the U.S. Attorney’s Office said her “self-serving claims” about addictions are not supported by medical documentation or other evidence.

In the beginning, Caldwell made relatively small PayPal withdrawals from Arts Council accounts compared to what she later took, according to details uncovered by the federal government in its legal discovery.

July 26, 2022: Caldwell took $100.

Christmas Eve 2022: The amount was $289.

Jan. 10, 2023: Only $89.

As the months, and then years passed, the amounts grew larger.

July 9, 2024: Caldwell made her single biggest transfer – $58,750.

Jan. 24, 2026: A last transfer of $15,478.94 before the scandal exploded.

How did she get away with it?

The simplest answer could be that no one checked up on Caldwell.

The way that she fooled officials at the Arts Council is explained in her attorney’s Sentencing Memorandum and in a court document from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The bottom line: She prepared false financial statements for Arts Council officials. Those statements altered and misreported financial figures to make it appear that there were no unauthorized transfers from the Arts Council’s bank accounts.

But perhaps the biggest revelation came from defense attorney Rooney when he said in the Sentencing Memorandum:

“Ms. Caldwell did not (and could not) restrict anyone’s access to the bank records which reflected transfers to her account nor did she falsify any bank records,” he said.

In other words, at least according to Rooney: The bank records were accurate, but Caldwell’s financial statements for the Arts Council were not. Comparing the two could have revealed discrepancies.

In the Sentencing Memorandum, Rooney used “careless” to describe the Arts Council, apparently a reference to no one comparing false financial statements against the bank records. (His full quote: “The defense understands that no matter how careless a crime victim may be, it is illegal and morally wrong to steal.”)

In a telephone interview, Rooney said: “Someone should have been verifying financial statements prepared by Suliana Caldwell. Those statements should have been crosschecked against actual bank records.”

“Did that happen?” The Munro Review asked.

“Not until January or February of 2026,” Rooney replied.

He added: “Whether it was [Executive Director] Lilia Gonzáles Chávez’s personal responsibility or someone else’s responsibility, I don’t know. But it was somebody’s responsibility.”

The Munro Review texted Gonzáles Chávez on Aug. 24 to ask about this. She did not reply.

Meanwhile, Simmons, the Fresno expert on nonprofit boards, said that industry standards call for the executive director and the treasurer of the board to review all financial records. He explained what might keep that from happening.

“In my experience, when staff members and board members get ‘comfortable’ with one another, they often confuse ‘oversight’ with a lack of trust – i.e. ‘we trust you, so, we’re not going to review your work or require documents from you,’ ” Simmons said.

While Caldwell was embezzling, two people served as treasurer. Nuñez, director of Educational Talent Search at Fresno State, held the post before assuming the board presidency. She’s listed on IRS tax forms as treasurer for the 2022-23 fiscal year. In the 2023-24 and 2024-25 fiscal years, Fresno certified public accountant Harpreet Gill is identified as treasurer. Caldwell was embezzling during all those years.

On Aug. 24, The Munro Review emailed Nuñez and Gill about whether they crosschecked Caldwell’s fraudulent financial statements with bank records. Neither of them replied.

Simmons said he believes that both Nuñez and Gill should resign from the board. An arts administrator who asked for anonymity because it’s a sensitive topic said all board members at the Arts Council who had financial responsibilities should consider resigning. “There were a lot of people who dropped the ball, but no one is being held accountable,” the administrator said.

City jumps in

On Feb. 7, Fresnoland was first to report that Fresno police were investigating an alleged embezzlement at the Arts Council. City Manager White soon adopted an aggressive tone.

The City had a major stake in the embezzlement case. It was taxpayer money from Measure P – paid by Fresno residents – that City Hall sent to the Arts Council in 2023 ($9.4 million) and 2024 ($5.7 million) for the grants program.

On Feb. 12, Fresnoland published an article based on an interview with White, the only sit-down with a reporter that she appears to have given concerning the embezzlement. In the article, White said Gonzáles Chávez of the Arts Council came to City Hall on Feb. 6 to report that an embezzlement had taken place. The article did not say how Gonzáles Chávez discovered the embezzlement.

On Feb. 23, White appeared at a meeting of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission and declared: “The City did nothing wrong. I stand by that 100%.” She added, “If people want to be angry, be angry with the Fresno Arts Council.”

Then on March 4, The Munro Review emailed White and asked about steps that City Hall might have taken to ensure greater accountability of the Arts Council in its handling of Measure P’s taxpayer money.

Those steps could have included the City requiring the Arts Council to submit quarterly financial reports rather than a yearly report.

White did not respond.

Subsequently, in a March 16 article published in The Munro Review, a public policy professor said White would have had the leverage to require the Arts Council to make quarterly reports. Insisting on that is standard practice for large cities – especially when negotiations with outside organizations involve millions of tax dollars, said Adam Butz, Ph.D., professor in the Graduate Center for Public Policy and Administration at Cal State Long Beach.

“The city manager’s office – or whoever is doing the negotiating – if they had any savviness, they would require quarterly reporting,” Butz said.

In addition, The Munro Review’s March 4 email to White asked another question: Did the City ask the Arts Council for a current external audit before turning over the Measure P money? Such an audit is considered the gold standard in the nonprofit world for ensuring that financial safeguards are in place.

White did not respond.

But she went on the offensive once again on the day of Caldwell’s Aug. 10 sentencing hearing. In published comments, White criticized defense attorney Rooney for stating that the Arts Council didn’t have adequate financial safeguards, and that was a factor in the embezzlement succeeding. “I think that is frankly shameful,” White was quoted as saying.

White’s approach could produce a chilling effect among some in Fresno’s arts community. Another arts administrator said that speaking up about the City’s handling of the embezzlement scandal poses a risk because organizations and artists are currently applying for new Measure P grants. The City’s parks department now administers the grants program and is working to award nearly $6.5 million.

“Speaking truth to power can have a lot of negative impacts,” said the arts administrator, who asked for anonymity out of concern for their funding chances. “Considering how much is at stake in the current funding cycle, it’s not a time to speak up.”

Other stolen money

Media coverage of the embezzlement has focused on the Measure P money that Caldwell embezzled. Early on, Gonzáles Chávez of the Arts Council reportedly told White that the missing $1.5 million came from Measure P. (Authorities later revised the embezzlement total to $1.82 million.)

But Caldwell stole from other funds at the Arts Council – as the Sept. 2 court filing from the U.S. Attorney’s Office makes clear. So did the embezzlement damage other taxpayer-funded programs administered by the Arts Council? The Munro Review emailed Nuñez at the Arts Council to inquire about this.

She did not reply.

In one example of the Arts Council receiving other government money, the National Endowment for the Arts provided partial funding for grants to arts and cultural organizations in rural Fresno County in 2025. The program was known as the Rural Arts Access Fund.

To ensure accountability that taxpayer money is properly spent, the National Endowment for the Arts would require a final report on the Rural Arts Access Fund. Accordingly, The Munro Review filed a Freedom of Information Act request to review that report. The NEA confirmed it received the request but had not provided the report prior to publication of this article.

In addition, The Munro Review requested from the Arts Council a list of all government and private grants it has received in the last five years. Lauren Nikkel, the new executive director, said in an email: “On the advice of counsel, we decline to respond to further media inquiries.”

Furthermore, The Munro Review requested from Arts Council attorney Jackson Waste a list of government grants and government service contracts that the Arts Council had beginning in the 2021-22 fiscal year. The reason for asking: Such a list could show other sources of money that Caldwell had access to. Waste declined to provide the list.

The Arts Council’s relationship with Fresno County raises questions about the Council’s lack of transparency. In late April – almost three months after the embezzlement became public – the Fresno County Board of Supervisors voted to continue designating the Arts Council as the county’s main arts agency.

In an article published in Fresnoland, Andrea Mele, then-interim executive director, told supervisors that the Arts Council had hired an outside accounting firm to supervise funds.

Recently, The Munro Review asked Board of Supervisors Chair Garry Bredefeld in an email whether the Arts Council’s official county designation should require its board of directors to answer questions.

Bredefeld did not reply.

Secrecy

White at City Hall and Nuñez at the Arts Council have differed in their communication strategies since the embezzlement scandal became public.

White has spoken out, while Nuñez has relied on written statements about, for example, cooperating with authorities and starting “a new chapter” with a new executive director. But neither has addressed substantive questions from The Munro Review, which has written 57 articles since October 2022 about Measure P and/or the Arts Council.

After Caldwell was sentenced on Aug. 10, one of those substantive questions centered on PayPal reimbursing the Arts Council. Incomplete information about the reimbursement came out at the sentencing hearing. That prompted The Munro Review to email White and Nuñez with questions, including why the City has not received reimbursement for the Measure P money that was embezzled.

They did not reply.

Keep track of Measure P: The city manager won’t answer our questions about Measure P. So we’re publishing them here.

At this time, the answer to that question remains unknown, as indicated by the following unclear statement in the Sept. 4 court filing of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “The government will continue to seek restitution of $1,177,913.92 for the City of Fresno, and it still has not received any request for restitution from PayPal despite the FBI’s repeated requests.”

Meanwhile, the pattern of White and Nuñez refusing to answer any questions erodes public trust, said Fresno State political science professor Tom Holyoke. Measure P arts grants came under a “dark cloud” because of the embezzlement, Holyoke said, adding that “the public needs to regain trust that this program is being run in a safe and efficient manner for the benefit of the public.”

Simmons, the Fresno expert on nonprofit boards, said he’s heard Nuñez speak about taking corrective measures at the Arts Council. But, he said, it’s unclear what she’s talking about. “To rebuild community trust, there must be more transparency,” Simmons said.

Earlier this month – six months after the embezzlement made headlines – The Munro Review emailed this question to Nuñez: “Could you please outline the steps taken by the FAC board since the embezzlement to strengthen financial oversight and board training that would facilitate that oversight?”

She did not reply.

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