Hanford woman arrested in embezzlement case

A Hanford woman has been arrested on suspicion of embezzling $300,000 over several years from her former employer, the Kings County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday.

Stacy Caldera, 43, was arrested Friday on several embezzlement and fraud charges and booked into the Kings County Jail.

After her employer, the Mission Oaks Company, a commercial property business, reported the embezzlement to authorities in October, an investigation was started.

According to the sheriff’s department and public records, the company was owned by Willard G. Clark, who died last year. Clark, a noted collector of Japanese art, founded the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture south of Hanford, which is now closed.

Caldera had been employed as a bookkeeper since March 2001. During her employment, she wrote nearly 240 fraudulent checks to herself in varying amounts totaling nearly $300,000, the sheriff’s department said.

She signed the company owner’s name without the consent or knowledge of the owners, the sheriff’s department said.

In July, she was laid off. In September, a new bookkeeper discovered inconsistencies, which were reported to the owners and subsequently to the sheriff’s department.

Records of the alleged embezzlement go back to 2008.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call detective Eric Hofmans at 559-852-4603.

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 2:37 PM with the headline "Hanford woman arrested in embezzlement case."