A phony construction vendor is accused of stealing more than $900,000 in taxpayer money for two school projects, Riverside Unified School District officials said this week.
Over $926,000 from a 2016 school bond approved by voters was taken from the district by someone posing as a construction manager for the Riverside-based company Tilden-Coil Constructors.
Riverside-area voters passed Measure O, a $392 million bond, to upgrade and renovate aging campuses and to build new school facilities.
The district was targeted by someone who pretended to be a construction vendor, Riverside Unified officials said Thursday, Sept. 12. The fraudulent vendor had knowledge of how the district worked and knew it was doing business with Tilden-Coil for these projects, they said.
The under-construction Casa Blanca Elementary School is seen Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Riverside. (Photo by Mark Acosta, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Tilden-Coil representatives could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
The district could not share exactly how the money was stolen or who stole it because the investigation is continuing, Riverside Unified spokesperson Elizabeth Pinney-Muglia said.
The district made payments to the fraudulent vendor between the end of March and beginning of May, using Measure O dollars. The payments went into an account controlled by the fraudulent vendor and, in May, the fraud was discovered and the district made a report to the Riverside Police Department and the FBI, school officials said.
Riverside Police Department spokesperson Ryan Railsback said late Thursday that he was working to get information on the department’s investigation.
Tilden-Coil was hired to complete work on Casa Blanca Elementary School, which is being built at 7351 Lincoln Ave. in the mostly Latino neighborhood of Riverside. The company is also handling modernizations at North High School,1550 Third St., Riverside.
Ground was broken on Casa Blanca Elementary School in 2023. It will be the first school to open in the community since 1967 and will educate up to 750 students, from preschool through sixth grade. Classes at the school are expected to start in August 2025.
An earlier Casa Blanca school closed in 1967 as part of the district’s plan to bus racial minorities into predominantly white neighborhoods to balance out the ethnic makeup of schools. In 1965, Riverside Unified became the first district in a city of 100,000 or more to voluntarily desegregate its schools. Since then, many in the neighborhood have advocated for a new school and an end to the busing of its students.
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For North High, the district set aside $50 million from Measure O funds for major upgrades in 2021. The school will see a new eight-classroom science building at the front of the school and a new gymnasium at the back.
In response to the alleged fraud, school district officials said they have improved their internal controls and updated their fraud training to address the issue.
The investigation recovered $108,178 and the district was reimbursed the other $778,622 through insurance, leaving Measure O funding whole, officials said.
They said that the investigation is continuing.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
