By Juan Calvillo and Ethan Cohen
Editor’s note: This story was corrected at 2:50 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4. Both defendants are former CSULB employees, not current.
More than $36,000 was stolen by two former employee of the Long Beach State Athletics Department, Los Angeles County prosecutors said on March 3.
In a press release today, the district attorney’s office charged Oscar Perez Almanza, 39, and Hender Noe Maxwell, 38, with one count of conspiracy to commit grand theft and one count of grand theft.
According to the district attorney’s office, the pair created fraudulent timesheets between January and December 2022.
The hours of work in these timesheets totaled to $36,560.
Prosecutors alleged that Maxwell, after leaving the CSULB Athletics Department, turned in false timesheets for hundreds of hours of work and that Almanza approved these timesheets. Almanza and Maxwell are alleged to have split the money.
The district attorney’s press release said the fraudulent acts indicated, “planning, sophistication, and professionalism; and involved an attempted and actual taking and damage of great monetary value.”
Both Almanza and Maxwell plead not guilty during their arraignment on March 3. Their next court appearance is scheduled for April 14.
The University Police Department investigated the case and James Milbury, CSULB news media services director said the university, “appreciate[s] our University Police for their initial investigation and the district attorney’s office for pursuing this matter.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information is acquired.
