Fresno State President ​Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval has dismissed board members of a Fresno State nonprofit that was at risk of fraud for how it handled millions of dollars in university funds, The Fresno Bee reported.

Operating as a nonprofit independent of the university, the Fresno State Foundation controls more than $315 million for the campus, including scholarships and research funds.

With their four-year terms ending June 30, five longstanding board members, including chairperson Vinci Ricchiuti, will not return at the direction of Jiménez-Sandoval, The Bee reported. Since the board members have no term limits, Jiménez-Sandoval has the power to not invite them back.

The other board members not invited to return were Claude Laval III, Kyle Stephenson, Richard Spencer, and Nat DiBuduo.

A California State University review released in January found that the practices of the Fresno State Foundation put university funds at risk of fraud by:

• Allowing “the same individual,” though unnamed, to prepare and approve multimillion-dollar wire transfers with the authority to revise vendor records.
• Not including faculty with experience in research administration on its board.

Jiménez-Sandoval, the sole university employee on the board, requested the review, which also noted the lack of turnover among board members. To strengthen oversight, he said the university and foundation would revise the board’s makeup, among other actions.

The foundation’s governance committee did not agree with the decision.

According to The Bee, the foundation and university are still working on a plan to address 46 governance and operational deficiencies identified by CSU in its review.

(GV Wire contributed to this article.)