Former CapRadio GM Jun Reina arrested, accused of embezzling over $1.3 million
Capital Public Radio’s former general manager Jun Reina was arrested Thursday in connection to embezzlement, grand theft and forgery charges after prosecutors accused him of misappropriating more than $1.3 million from the NPR-broadcaster licensed to Sacramento State, authorities said.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office in a statement said Reina, 60, “orchestrated a multi-year scheme” between December 2016 and June 2022 in which “Reina misappropriated approximately $1.33 million through unauthorized credit card charges, payments to personal credit card accounts, and 144 ACH transfers from Capital Public Radio’s bank account to his own account.”
“These stolen funds were used to finance luxury international travel, high-end home renovations, tuition for his children and other personal expenses,” the District Attorney’s Office statement continued, in part. Reina turned himself in at the downtown Sacramento County Main Jail, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, which posted a video of Reina in handcuffs on social media.
Reina was released from jail late Thursday after posting $200,000 bail, according to the Sheriff’s Office, and was expected to be arraigned Monday in Sacramento Superior Court.
CapRadio — with stations KXJZ-FM (90.9) and KXPR-FM (88.9) — are an auxiliary of Sacramento State, meaning it operates as a separate nonprofit that serves the university’s mission.
Reina was linked to spending at least $460,800 of donor money on activities, such as international travel, fine dining and home renovations, which were not backed up by expense reports or receipts, according to a 2024 forensic examination commissioned by Sacramento State, which holds the licenses for CapRadio.
It was not immediately clear whether Reina had retained a criminal attorney. Albert Ellis, an attorney representing Reina in a civil case, could not be immediately reached.
Reina worked at Capital Public Radio for more than a decade, first joining the broadcaster in 2007 as its chief financial officer before becoming general manager in 2020. He left the station before widespread layoffs in August 2023, when the station’s financial crisis became public.
The arrest marked a “full circle moment” for CapRadio, supporters and community members that continued their support in the wake of a financial crisis, wrote Chris Bruno, the radio station’s chief marketing and revenue officer, in a statement.
“After two years of restoring trust, strengthening our finances and ensuring accountability for past wrongs, today’s criminal charges against Jun Reina are an affirmation of our relentless pursuit of the truth under new leadership,” Bruno wrote. “We are grateful for the diligence of local law enforcement and for the loyalty and true goodness of the Sacramento community.”
The criminal case followed a civil lawsuit filed by CapRadio in December 2024 alleging Reina siphoned at least $900,000 from the broadcaster over roughly 10 years to pay for luxury travel, home renovations and other personal expenses. The lawsuit accused Reina of secretly opening and controlling corporate credit cards and using station funds to pay mortgage and property tax bills on his West Sacramento home.
A forensic examination commissioned by Sacramento State and released in 2024 linked Reina to nearly $768,000 in unsupported credit card expenses between 2017 and 2023 and found additional payments made directly from station accounts. The examination concluded the station lacked basic internal controls.
As part of the civil case, CapRadio received a $1.2 million insurance settlement under its fraud protection policy. The station’s insurer is continuing to pursue the litigation on CapRadio’s behalf, according to station officials.
Before the civil settlement, Reina denied wrongdoing in court filings responding to the civil lawsuit, arguing any errors were unintentional and that statutes of limitations had expired. His attorney also blamed the station’s own financial oversight failures for any losses.
The charges were brought after an investigation by the District Attorney’s Office and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, according to the news release. The Sheriff’s Office said its property crimes detectives were first notified of the possible embezzlement on Jan. 2, 2024.
In announcing the charges, Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho called the allegations against Reina “a serious breach of trust.”
“Nonprofit organizations depend on transparency and accountability,” Ho said in prepared remarks. “When someone entrusted with financial oversight is alleged to exploit that position for personal gain, it undermines public confidence and harms the community the organization serves.”
Unredacted documents showed luxury spending
The nature of some of the luxury spending linked to Reina first emerged in January 2025, when Sacramento State provided a less-redacted version of a forensic examination into CapRadio’s finances in response to a Sacramento Bee public records request.
The documents included an itemized list of transactions made using an American Express credit card controlled by Reina between December 2017 and May 2022. The list had been redacted in the university’s public release of the documents in August 2024.
A Bee review last year of the unredacted list of transactions determined that of the more than $460,000 in purchases by Reina’s credit card not supported by receipts, more than $145,000 was spent on travel, lodging and vehicle rentals.
The travel and lodging purchases included an $11,258 stay at downtown Sacramento’s Kimpton Sawyer Hotel, a $10,250 stay at the Westin Hotel in the Caribbean nation of St. Maarten and a $5,122 flight transaction on Japan’s All Nippon Airways.
In public social media posts, Reina and his wife shared photographs from international vacations including to Fiji, Peru and Dubai. The list of unsupported transactions included a $348 hotel transaction in Lima, Peru; a nearly $1,700 meal at a Dubai steakhouse; and about $1,500 in plane tickets through Fiji Airways, all of which corresponded to the dates of the social media posts.
Reina’s credit card also was used to buy more than $75,000 in home improvement supplies. The sheriff and district attorney in Thursday’s statements, and CapRadio in its lawsuit against Reina, said Reina used some of the misappropriated funds for home improvement projects.
The unsupported credit card spending also included $27,000 on high-end restaurants, as well as $17,000 in golf club membership fees for at least six different clubs over a stretch of less than two years.
More than two years after leaving CapRadio, Reina’s bio on the social media platform X as of Thursday continued to read: “GM at Capital Public Radio when not golfing.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 3:27 PM.
