Kinston police charge former arts council director with money laundering

The woman who long ran a North Carolina arts nonprofit has been charged with felony money laundering, forgery and identity theft over checks she wrote to herself after leaving the job, the Kinston Police Department said.

Sandy Landis, 76, turned herself in at the Pitt County Magistrate's Office on July 16 and was released on an unsecured bond, police said. Detectives had obtained the warrants a day earlier.

Landis served the Community Council for the Arts in Kinston for 27 years before stepping down last summer, according to a Facebook post from her retirement party. She stayed on afterward as a transitional consultant, and it is that period the charges cover.

Detectives opened the case in December 2025 after receiving allegations of financial misconduct at the organization, police said. They identified Landis as the suspect and concluded she had issued multiple unauthorized checks to herself from the nonprofit's accounts.

The checks came to roughly $21,037.25, according to the department, and were written for consulting fees the organization could not substantiate, vacation compensation and a contribution to an individual retirement account.

Bank records reviewed by detectives showed several of the checks were deposited into Landis' personal account, police said.

She faces one count each of felony money laundering, identity theft, forgery, felony possession of stolen goods, obtaining property by false pretense and larceny of chose in action, along with two counts of uttering a forged instrument and five counts of possession of counterfeit instruments.

Larceny of chose in action is a North Carolina charge covering the theft of a document that carries a right to money, such as a check.

The organization operates out of a roughly 30,000-square-foot former produce market on North Queen Street in downtown Kinston, a building it moved into during Landis' tenure and is now used for galleries, studios and classrooms.

Landis also helped establish the African American Music Trail and the Kinston Music Park, according to a Neuse News profile published as she prepared to retire.

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