Fresno State Foundation misdirected donations over 17 years, state found in 2011 probe

The Fresno State Foundation recently found to have risked fraud with poor financial controls in 2024 was also included in a 2011 probe by the California Department of Justice into “misdirected donations” and other allegations against the university’s auxiliary organizations.

In 2011, the state sent a letter to John Melikian, then-legal counsel for the Foundation, with the results of the state’s investigation into the issues concerning the Foundation, but also the Fresno State Athletic Corporation and the Fresno State Association. All three organizations operate independently of the university as nonprofits but control large amounts of money for university operations.

The nonprofits were accused of misdirecting donations to the university’s athletics department. Association board members were accused of approving a no-bid contract. Both the Foundation and Association were accused of violating the California Public Records Act.

The investigation found no merit to the accusations about the no-bid contract or records act violations. But the probe confirmed that $2.8 million in donations were misdirected to the university’s athletic program over a 17-year prior period.

The 2011 letter, signed by then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris and posted on the university’s website, said donations that were misdirected to athletics were made through the Matching Gifts program. The program allows companies to match the donations their employees make to the university through the Foundation. The donors were eligible for benefits in return, including tickets to university sports events.

Similar to the most recent review of the Foundation, Harris’ letter describes problems stemming from “poor judgment” among management.

At the time of the attorney general’s probe, the Foundation was run by executive director Debbie Adishian-Astone, who served in that role from 2009 until she retired in late 2024. Adishian-Astone also worked as the university’s chief financial officer and vice president of administration from 2016-2024, and was also chair of the Association and the Athletic Corporation for several years.

While she was in charge of the Foundation, that nonprofit was also found to have operated with poor financial controls that exposed it to fraud, according to the recent results of a CSU review of the organization focused on the 2024 fiscal year. The review found someone at the Foundation was allowed to prepare and approve multi-million-dollar wire transfers and had the ability to revise vendor records.

The CSU found no instances of fraud in its review, which examined operations during the 2024 fiscal year. That time period covers July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, according to Fresno State. Adishian-Astone retired from Fresno State at the end of 2024.

Though the review found no actual instances of fraud, its findings are concerning to Fresno State because the Foundation manages a $250 million endowment fund of donations and investments and $65 million in government grants for the university. It then redistributes the money to pay for research, student scholarships, employee salary support and other important initiatives at the university.

Adishian-Astone did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment about the Foundation’s 2011 probe, its recent review or how the organization operated under her leadership. Melikian, the Foundation’s lawyer at the time of the probe, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Brady Crook, who replaced Adishian-Astone as the Foundation’s executive director, told The Bee on Monday that fixing the problems found in the organization’s recent review is “now a top priority.”

Fresno State Foundation misdirected donations, but ‘did not intend to deceive’

According to the 2011 letter, the university and its auxiliary organizations took steps to correct the misdirection of donations from the Matching Gifts Program.

The letter says the university had reviewed documents and found out many companies don’t match employees’ donations if they are designated for athletics, or if the employees receive a personal benefit for their contributions, according to the letter.

The letter says the Association’s chair and the university then sought an independent audit to determine “why the donations were misdirected to the athletics program and what needed to be done to correct the problem.”

The audit found personnel managing the Matching Gifts Program “did not intend to deceive the companies participating in the program.” Instead, the misdirection of money stemmed from “poor judgment” and monitoring by management, “faulty internal certification processes” and “lack of communication” between the donors and the organizations handling the money.

Of the $2.8 million that was misdirected, the donors of about $1.48 million declined to have their contributions refunded or correctly redirected. The donors of about $1.36 million chose to have their contributions redirected to scholarships, the university’s general fund or library. Five companies requested their donations — totaling $25,570 — be refunded.

Another $12,665 that came from companies that could not be contacted were redirected to an academic scholarship fund.

Accusations of no-bid contract, Public Records Act violation

The state also looked at allegations that the Association’s board awarded a no-bid contract for the construction of the Maya Cinemas at the Campus Pointe plaza. The Association has administered the development of the plaza, which is a public-private project.

The probe found the Association received two bids for the construction of the theater — voiding the allegation that it wasn’t competitive — and chose the local developer who “demonstrated a greater understanding” of market demands and use of the property.

The state’s letter notes that a Fresno County judge found Moctesuma Esparza, the founder of the theater’s operating company, had a conflict of interest in the project because he was a CSU board member. But the letter said “this conflict had nothing to do with the Association.”

Esparza had resigned in 2007 to “avoid any appearance of conflict of interest” in Campus Pointe project, according to notes from a CSU meeting that year.

The Association and Foundation were also accused of violating the California Public Records Act when they refused to provide the names of donors “who executed seating license agreements for luxury suites” at the Save Mart Center, the letter says.

“The Public Records Act is applicable to government agencies,” the letter says. “The auxiliaries are public benefit corporations and not ‘state agencies’ and were therefore not subject to the Public Records Act at the time this allegation arose.”

Editor’s note: This version was changed to clarify the exact time period covered by the review.

This story was originally published January 15, 2026 at 9:38 AM.

Erik Galicia

The Fresno Bee

Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea’s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert. Erik’s work is supported through the California Local News Fellowship program.