The dispute over who can see an audit of Val Verde Unified School District’s partnership with a Chinese boarding school is now before Riverside County Superior Court. Longtime district consultant David Long filed a writ of mandate on September 3, 2026, seeking to unseal records from the FCMAT review. He named Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Edwin Gomez, the Riverside County Office of Education and the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, known as FCMAT, as respondents.
Long alleges that county education officials suppressed the audit records and tried to blame him for suspected misconduct, according to the Press-Enterprise. Gomez leads the Riverside County Office of Education, which supports 23 school districts serving 430,000 students countywide. Long’s petition characterizes the handling of the records as a cover-up intended to conceal taxpayer-funded FCMAT reports; those are allegations, not findings established by the petition.
How the Pegasus Partnership Began
The partnership began with a 2016 sister-school agreement between Val Verde Unified and Pegasus, a school identified as being based in China. In 2017, the district board approved a three-year diploma pilot. Under the arrangement, Pegasus students could receive Val Verde Unified diplomas if they met California educational standards and the district’s graduation requirements, according to the Press-Enterprise account.
Long says he worked for Pegasus California School in China and helped establish the program with Tom Torlakson, a former California superintendent of public instruction, and Michael McCormick, a former Val Verde Unified superintendent. Pegasus was founded by Steven Ma, who the Press-Enterprise reported declined to be interviewed by auditors. The Larson audit alleges that Long, Torlakson and McCormick used their influence to recruit staff and help Pegasus students gain access to U.S. colleges.
The FCMAT Audit's Long Road
The Riverside County Office of Education requested a FCMAT review of Val Verde Unified in June 2021. The two agencies formalized the review’s scope, procedures and compensation in February 2022; the work cost $145,000. FCMAT delivered an initial findings report to the county office in May 2023 and a revised findings report in May 2024.
What the Reviews and Diploma Rules Establish
FCMAT says it generally works with the requesting agency to set a review’s scope, then conducts fieldwork and provides a written report with findings and recommendations, according to FCMAT. That description of its usual process does not establish the statutory basis for this particular review or resolve the public-access rules at issue in the Val Verde dispute. For the diploma pilot, the California Department of Education says state law sets minimum high-school graduation course requirements, while local education agency governing boards may add requirements. That general framework does not determine whether the Pegasus program complied.
The county office referred the Pegasus diploma program to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for potential criminal prosecution in September 2023, according to the Press-Enterprise. The office also said it had identified 13 issues it believed FCMAT had not adequately addressed. FCMAT reportedly declined to reopen the review, finish the audit or address those claimed deficiencies.
A Fight Over Disclosure
The agencies also disagreed over public release. FCMAT said it was willing to provide the report unless a court ordered otherwise, and said it routinely makes audit reports public. It also said the county office had not identified a law barring disclosure and that the report could neither charge nor exonerate anyone.
The disclosure dispute reached court while the reports were being finalized. The Riverside County Office of Education requested an order preventing release in May 2024, and the order was granted in February 2025. FCMAT filed its own petition on May 31, 2024, challenging the county office’s position on disclosure. On February 20, 2025, Judge Eric A. Keen issued a permanent injunction barring public release of the FCMAT reports.
A Second Audit Surfaces
The county office commissioned a separate review by Larson LLP. Completed in February 2026 and made public the following month, the report runs more than 1,000 pages and cites potential fraud, misappropriation of public funds, conflicts of interest, breaches of fiduciary duty and other unlawful fiscal practices. These are allegations in the Larson report and have not been independently verified here.
Long’s petition alleges that Gomez and the county office were dissatisfied with FCMAT’s original findings because they did not identify wrongdoing by Long. His petition asks the court to unseal the FCMAT reports.
