CapRadio sues former GM for $900,000; Claims theft

[michael hagerty]

CapRadio's Chris Nichols and Vicki Gonzales continue their excellent coverage of the story that's unfolded within the building over the last year and a half.

The article contains a scrollable pdf of the lawsuit:

‘Golf course fees, fine dining and college tuition’: Lawsuit claims former CapRadio GM stole station funds to pay for personal expenses

In a complaint filed against Jun Reina, CapRadio accuses the former general manager of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public media station for personal gain.

www.capradio.org

Of note in the story, Reina allegedly did this for six years---only three of them as GM. Prior to that, he was Chief Financial Officer under General Manager Rick Eytcheson, who's quoted in the piece.

No word from the Sacramento Sheriff's Office about the criminal investigation into Jun Reina that it confirmed was underway in August.

 

[michael hagerty]

Also, in response to public records requests from CapRadio and the Sacramento Bee, Sac State has released an un-redacted version of its forensic audit:

https://www.csus.edu/president/university-communications/_internal/_documents/unredacted-cpr-report-1-8-25.pdf?

 

[michael hagerty]

Finished my first skim of the unredacted report over my morning coffee.

The really fascinating stuff is in the exhibits and attachments in the back, which include internal e-mails and Reina's itemized credit card expenditures.

Some whoppers there---a $1,700 dinner at a steakhouse in Dubai (it only cost him $900 to fly there), and $10,250 for lodgings at the Westin St. Maarten.

There damn well better be criminal charges.

 

[radiofan2023]

Does the report explain why none of these alleged personal expenses were caught for 6 years?

 

[michael hagerty]

Does the report explain why none of these alleged personal expenses were caught for 6 years?

In broad strokes, yes. What's clear is that after CEO/GM Rick Eytcheson decided in 2013 not to replace a departing COO, but instead to give those responsibilities to Reina in addition to the CFO title he'd held for seven years, Reina successfully walled off finance so that he was able to open accounts, spend money and have the CapRadio bank account pay the bills without anyone else having access to that information.

What is still to be determined is the failure of Eytcheson (who was Reina's boss for the first three years of the six years in question) and the Board of Directors to provide proper oversight, and what sort of misrepresentations and falsifications Reina may have made to get through five successive annual audits undetected.

Important to remember: This isn't the end.

The audit uncovered the problem.

The forensic report uncovered the amount of damage done.

The lawsuit assigns blame and attempts to recover.

The criminal investigation and trial (assuming the Sheriff and D.A. decide to proceed) will be where we learn the mechanics of the deception involved that allowed this to happen.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

This calls into question how the previous SacState board members and to a certain extent Corporation for Public Broadcasting could have stopped this from happening. And the article says during the time Jun Reina was with CapRadio had a house in West Sacramento which is apparently listed on sale.

1022 Waterford Dr, West Sacramento, CA 95605 | Zillow

1022 Waterford Dr, West Sacramento CA, is a Single Family home that contains 4498 sq ft and was built in 2005.It contains 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.This home last sold for $750,000 in March 2017. The Zestimate for this Single Family is $1,105,900, which has decreased by $8,200 in the last 30...

www.zillow.com

CapRadio provided a link to the house Jun Reina lived during the time he was with them and it’s listed at $1.37 million according to this update.

 

[radiofan2023]

CEO/GM Rick Eytcheson decided in 2013 not to replace a departing COO, but instead to give those responsibilities to Reina in addition to the CFO title he'd held for seven years

Well that seems like a bad idea that could go wrong many different ways, even without hindsight.

 

[TheBigA]

This calls into question how the previous SacState board members and to a certain extent Corporation for Public Broadcasting could have stopped this from happening.

CPB really doesn't have that authority. The buck really stops at the local level. In fact CPB might claim it has grounds to sue for the station's misappropriation of federal funds, if that indeed happened. But this is another reason why a lot of universities are trying to get out of the radio business. They don't mind owning the licenses, or providing facilities, but this kind of thing it outside of their normal experience.

 

[michael hagerty]

Well that seems like a bad idea that could go wrong many different ways, even without hindsight.

Yeah. That should never have happened. There's a reason those titles and positions exist.

And when Eytcheson retired, Reina held all three titles.

 

[michael hagerty]

CPB really doesn't have that authority. The buck really stops at the local level. In fact CPB might claim it has grounds to sue for the station's misappropriation of federal funds, if that indeed happened.

CPB is, in fact, conducting its own audit of CapRadio as a result of this.

 

[radiofan2023]

CPB is, in fact, conducting its own audit of CapRadio as a result of this.

Could they lose their funding from CPB, whatever amount that is?

 

[michael hagerty]

Could they lose their funding from CPB, whatever amount that is?

Worst case, yes.

It's clear that the vast majority of this can be laid at the feet of one person no longer there, and that the University has implemented strict controls and best practices (the GM now reports to Sac State), but CPB is well within its rights to demand answers as to why the University was so hands-off until last year.

 

[michael hagerty]

CPB has paused its funding pending the outcome of its own audit of CapRadio. That happened in September of 2023, so CapRadio is coming up on a year and a half without CPB funding.

 

[Voicetrack of Reason]

That's a stunning list of unauthorized expenses. There are some people who just can't handle "the trappings of the office" for which they are appointed.

 

[tbolt909]

Finished my first skim of the unredacted report over my morning coffee.

The really fascinating stuff is in the exhibits and attachments in the back, which include internal e-mails and Reina's itemized credit card expenditures.

Some whoppers there---a $1,700 dinner at a steakhouse in Dubai (it only cost him $900 to fly there), and $10,250 for lodgings at the Westin St. Maarten.

There damn well better be criminal charges.

Sounds like some of the same stuff Clarence Thomas and other Supreme Court members have done. "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" as the saying goes. It's amazing how much Malfeasance some people will attempt. They get away with it until they don't (But only for certain individuals). Some get away clean...

 

[michael hagerty]

That's a stunning list of unauthorized expenses. There are some people who just can't handle "the trappings of the office" for which they are appointed.

This is next-level egregious.

 

[Michael Rivers Kramer]

Yeah. That should never have happened. There's a reason those titles and positions exist.

And when Eytcheson retired, Reina held all three titles.

My memories of Rick were at KFBK/KGBY. My impression was that he wasn’t a micromanager and gave his managers a free hand for the most part.

 

[davideduardo]

CapRadio provided a link to the house Jun Reina lived during the time he was with them and it’s listed at $1.37 million according to this update.

If you are not a CA resident, a $1.3 million dollar house in any of the major cities of CA is something like what a $300,000 house in Cleveland would be like, except the CA house would be smaller and on a smaller lot.

And I mean Sacramento, San Francisco/San Jose, LA, Santa Barbara, Monterrey, San Diego, Riverside/San Bernardino, Palm Springs. Some, like San Jose and Santa Barbara are even more costly.

 

[michael hagerty]

If you are not a CA resident, a $1.3 million dollar house in any of the major cities of CA is something like what a $300,000 house in Cleveland would be like, except the CA house would be smaller and on a smaller lot.

And I mean Sacramento, San Francisco/San Jose, LA, Santa Barbara, Monterrey, San Diego, Riverside/San Bernardino, Palm Springs. Some, like San Jose and Santa Barbara are even more costly.

It's a pretty nice house. I haven't been there, but I went over the Zillow listing for it---five bedroom, five bath, 4,498 square feet. $297 per square foot.

Frankly, I'm surprised it's only $1.3 million, but West Sacramento doesn't have the image of other parts of the area.

I don't know yet if this is in relation to the CapRadio lawsuit, but the house is now off the market---all you can see on Zillow is the basic facts and an aerial view:

1022 Waterford Dr, West Sacramento, CA 95605 | Zillow

1022 Waterford Dr, West Sacramento CA, is a Single Family home that contains 4498 sq ft and was built in 2005.It contains 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.This home last sold for $750,000 in March 2017. The Zestimate for this Single Family is $1,105,900, which has decreased by $8,200 in the last 30...

www.zillow.com

 

[Weiserguy]

It's a pretty nice house. I haven't been there, but I went over the Zillow listing for it---five bedroom, five bath, 4,498 square feet. $297 per square foot.

Frankly, I'm surprised it's only $1.3 million, but West Sacramento doesn't have the image of other parts of the area.

I don't know yet if this is in relation to the CapRadio lawsuit, but the house is now off the market---all you can see on Zillow is the basic facts and an aerial view:

1022 Waterford Dr, West Sacramento, CA 95605 | Zillow

1022 Waterford Dr, West Sacramento CA, is a Single Family home that contains 4498 sq ft and was built in 2005.It contains 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.This home last sold for $750,000 in March 2017. The Zestimate for this Single Family is $1,105,900, which has decreased by $8,200 in the last 30...

www.zillow.com

A few comments, Mike. A partner and I used to own a rental house in WestSac that we sold a decade ago, so I'm somewhat familiar with WestSac. Reina's house is a couple of miles away, in a development that looks a good deal more upscale. But all the lots on his street seem to be the same size (9365 sq ft), and his house is only slightly larger than the other similarly-sized houses there. It has an additional half bath -- or a half bath was converted into a full bath. But they're all 5 bedrooms, and the houses are adjacent to smaller (4/3 or 5/3) homes on the same sized lots. However, Reina's house was listed for $200K more than the closest-in-size nearby house, and much more (half a Mill) than the values of the immediately adjacent houses. That says to me he's greedy *and* unrealistic about what a house like that, in a community like that, is likely to sell for. As you wrote, he has since yanked the listing, maybe because he wasn't able to find a sucker to make a quick killing on. But since the Fed rate cuts appear to have stalled, and since many of the houses are owned or rented by state government employees or contractors, I think he's unlikely to find that bigger sucker anytime soon.