FRESNO - Gabriel Ruiz De Chavez, 47, of Fresno, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley to two years and nine months in prison for a multiyear embezzlement scheme and ordered to pay over $1.5 million in restitution, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
In July 2024, Ruiz De Chavez pleaded guilty to wire fraud. According to court documents, from 2004 to 2020, he worked as an operations manager for a Fresno-based trucking company. Between 2012 and 2019, he used his position to generate fake invoices, purportedly created by genuine vendors for goods and services. He presented these fake invoices and corresponding checks made out to the real vendors with his employer’s signature. He would then deposit the checks into his own personal bank account.
DELANO - California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials are searching for an incarcerated person who escaped today shortly after arriving at the Kern County Superior Courthouse in Delano.
OAKHURST - Yesterday in the mid-afternoon, the Madera County Sheriff’s Communications Center received a report of multiple hit-and-runs with a vehicle in the area of Highway 49 and State Route 41 in Oakhurst. The suspect was driving a stolen vehicle, and the owner recognized it. The victim then called 9-1-1 and stayed on the phone with Dispatch, updating the location. During the call, the suspect also rammed the reporting party’s car.
FRESNO - Yesterday
MADERA - Early last Thursday evening, Madera Police Officers were dispatched to the 900 block of S. Gateway Dr. regarding an assault with a deadly weapon. Officers contacted a female victim who reported she was driving into the alleyway of her apartment complex with her two young children when gunfire erupted and struck her vehicle. 
