WASHINGTON, D.C. – The founder of Casa Ruby, a once-prominent nonprofit serving the LGBTQ+ community in the District, has been sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison for diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer-backed COVID-19 relief funds for personal use, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, 56-year-old Ruby Jade Corado, also known as Vladimir Orlando Artiga Corado, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden to 33 months in prison for wire fraud. Corado was also ordered to serve two years of supervised release and pay $956,215 in restitution to the Small Business Administration.
Prosecutors said Corado obtained more than $1.3 million in Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds intended to support Casa Ruby, Inc., a D.C.-based nonprofit that claimed to provide housing, mental health, and social services for LGBTQ+ individuals, including homeless youth and immigrants. Instead of using the funds for payroll and operations, Corado diverted more than $950,000 and transferred at least $150,000 to personal bank accounts in El Salvador while concealing the money from the Internal Revenue Service.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said Corado’s actions betrayed both public trust and the mission of the organization. “Instead of using the funds as promised, Corado stole over $950,000, transferred at least $150,000 to bank accounts in El Salvador, and hid it from the IRS,” Pirro said.
Court documents state that after financial misconduct at Casa Ruby became public in 2022, Corado sold her home in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and fled to El Salvador. She was arrested on March 5, 2024, at a hotel in Laurel, Maryland, upon returning to the United States.
Casa Ruby, which once operated multiple shelters and provided tens of thousands of services annually, collapsed in 2022 after closing its transitional housing programs, failing to pay employees, and being evicted from several properties for nonpayment of rent.
The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office with assistance from the D.C. Office of the Inspector General.
The founder of Casa Ruby was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to repay nearly $1 million for diverting COVID-19 relief funds meant for the nonprofit’s LGBTQ+ programs.