WASHINGTON — The founder of the LGBTQ+ nonprofit Casa Ruby is set to plead guilty to reduced charges after being accused by the federal government of diverting $150,000 of pandemic relief funds to her accounts in El Salvador.
According to federal records filed Friday, Ruby Corado was charged with one count of wire fraud. Initially the 53-year-old had been charged with multiple counts including bank fraud, wire fraud, laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transactions in criminally derived proceeds and failure to file a report of a foreign bank account.
A July 17 plea deal has been set according to D.C. federal court records.
In March, Corado was arrested by the FBI in a Laurel hotel, nearly two years after she fled the country. She was placed on 24-hour home detention in Maryland pending trial.
Federal prosecutors said Corado received more than a $1 million in taxpayer-backed emergency relief funds intended to support the Casa Ruby nonprofit. At least $150,000 were funneled to her personal accounts according to prosecutors.
Casa Ruby operated in D.C. for 10 years, aiming to provide transitional housing and related support to LGBTQ+ youth through charitable donations from the public and grants from the D.C. government.
In a separate lawsuit filed in November 2022, the D.C. Attorney General's Office accused Corado of violating D.C. laws by not paying workers all of their wages earned.
In court filings, Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office said Casa Ruby received more than $9 million in grants from the D.C. government from 2016 to 2022, when the nonprofit ceased operations.
The pending case argues that despite millions in grants and donations, the charity was behind on rent for several of its transitional housing projects. It alleges that Casa Ruby has outstanding payroll debts to employees. In one section of the lawsuit, the office alleged Corado sent at least $500,000 to an account in El Salvador.