Ruby Jade Corado, 56, the founder of Casa Ruby, Inc., a Washington D.C.-based non-profit that provided services to the LGBTQ+ community, has been sentenced to 33 months in prison in connection with diverting at least $150,000 in taxpayer-backed emergency Covid-relief funds to private offshore bank accounts for personal use, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
Corado, aka ‘Vladimir Orlando Artiga Corado’, pleaded guilty on July 17, 2024, to wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden.
In addition to the 33-month prison term, Judge McFadden ordered Corado to serve two years of supervised release and to pay $956,215 in restitution to the Small Business Administration.
According to court documents, in 2022, when financial irregularities at Casa Ruby became public, Corado sold her home in Prince Georges County, Maryland, and fled to El Salvador.
FBI agents arrested Corado on March 5, 2024, at a hotel in Laurel, Maryland, when she unexpectedly returned to the United States.
Casa Ruby had claimed to provide housing services for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, including transitional housing.
The organisation also claimed to assist LGBTQ+ immigrants by providing social services such as case management and therapeutic mental health support for survivors of violence, and to assist with a wide array of services, such as assisting with passport applications and certain visa applications.
The non-profit’s website stated that Casa Ruby employed over 50 people and provided more than 30,000 social and human services to more than 6,000 people each year. Casa Ruby operated multiple shelters in Washington, D.C., that provided transitional housing.
Casa Ruby effectively ceased operations in July 2022, when it shuttered its transitional housing, failed to pay its employees, and faced eviction from multiple properties for non-payment of rent.
