This story was originally published by Fresnoland.
Suliana Caldwell of Fresno is expected to plead guilty to one felony count of wire fraud in connection with a $1.82 million embezzlement case.
As operations manager at the Fresno Arts Council, Caldwell was in charge of the books. The nonprofit arts organization’s bank accounts and finances were under her control. She also ran payroll.
According to charging documents filed in federal court, Caldwell would transfer funds from the Fresno Arts Council’s bank accounts to a PayPal account before depositing funds into her own personal bank accounts.
Over the span of three years and nine months, Caldwell issued over 300 unauthorized wire transfers, stealing a total of about $1.82 million, according to federal investigators. Most of those funds were from the City of Fresno and other public entities, too.
Investigators say Caldwell concealed the embezzlement of funds by falsifying financial reports to the Arts Council’s executive director and board, as well as city and county officials. According to charging documents, she used the funds to gamble at casinos and pay for vacations among other things.
On March 26, Caldwell confessed to the Fresno Police Department and the FBI that she embezzled funds from the Fresno Arts Council, according to court documents.
The plea agreement requires time in federal prison, although it doesn’t say how long. The maximum sentence is 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to the plea agreement.
Caldwell will be arraigned and enter a plea in federal court at an April 20 hearing.
The plea agreement was entered in federal court about two months after Fresnoland broke the news that a former Fresno Arts Council employee was under police investigation for embezzling public funds from the nonprofit organization.
The charging documents in the $1.82 million wire fraud case are available here
Hundreds of transactions over several years
In June 2022, Caldwell began making regular unauthorized transfers of Fresno Arts Council funds, and she continued until February 2026.
In November 2023, the Fresno Arts Council received $9.7 million in Measure P tax revenue from the City of Fresno — nearly 10 times the nonprofit’s average annual revenue of $1 million over the prior decade.
That multi-million dollar installment of Measure P funds was for the first round of grants for local arts organizations. In October 2024, the Fresno Arts Council received another $5.7 million in Measure P funds, this time for the second round of Measure P grants for arts organizations.
“Caldwell’s unauthorized transfers significantly increased in 2023 after the FAC received millions of dollars in Measure P funds,” according to federal court documents. “She continued to withdraw FAC funds regularly through February 2026.”
Caldwell also, according to charging documents, falsified financial reports not only to her superiors at the Fresno Arts Council, but also to city and county officials.
“Specifically, she altered and misreported the financial figures in the reports to make the reports appear as though no unauthorized transfers occurred from the FAC’s bank accounts when, in fact, she was taking the funds for the benefit of herself,” the charging document says.
According to the plea agreement, Caldwell needs to pay $1.82 million in restitution to “the victims affected by her crimes.” She has also agreed, through the plea agreement, to “not seek to discharge any restitution obligation in a bankruptcy proceeding.”
Caldwell is also not allowed to sell any of her property or assets worth more than $5,000 without written consent from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
