Former manager of Filipino food giant Ramar Foods pleads guilty to $1.4M embezzlement scheme

MARTINEZ -- The former accounting manager at a long-established Filipino frozen food production company in Pittsburg pleaded guilty Thursday to several charges related to an embezzlement scheme through which she pilfered more than $1 million.

Mary Antoinette Narvaez Hernandez, 60, pleaded guilty to felony grand theft embezzlement, identity theft, money laundering and tax evasion and was given one year in county jail, along with a seven-year suspended state prison sentence, according to the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office.

Hernandez was also ordered to stay away from her former employer, Ramar Foods International, and to pay restitution, taxes owed and the cost of the investigation and her prosecution.

Prosecutors say Hernandez embezzled almost $1.4 million from the company from 2016 to 2021 and failed to pay $97,568 in state taxes.

Hernandez has cooperated with investigators and already paid more than $410,000 in restitution, according to the District Attorney's Office.

"A plea agreement like this one is an effective way for the victims to receive financial restitution from what was stolen from them -- and for the state to recover tax revenue that was unlawfully evaded by the defendant," District Attorney Diana Becton said in a news release Friday.

Hernandez can apply to serve her jail time through the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Custody Alternative Facility.