Founder of D.C. nonprofit for homeless LGBTQ+ youth pleads guilty to diverting COVID relief money

The founder of a D.C. nonprofit group intended to house homeless LGBTQ+ youth and immigrants pleaded guilty to wire fraud Wednesday for moving COVID-19 relief money to private offshore accounts.

Ruby Corado, 53, a transgender woman born in El Salvador, founded Casa Ruby and opened a physical center for the group near Howard University in 2012.

During the pandemic, the organization was given $1.3 million in Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program funds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a release.

In addition to Casa Ruby, Corado was also the owner of “TIGloballogistics LLC,” a purported services and consulting business. Corado registered it under the trade name of “Casa Ruby Pharmacy” starting in January 2021, according to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint.

According to the affidavit, Corado transferred $100,000 from a Casa Ruby account that had been given a PPP loan to the TIGlobal account in April 2021, and from there transferred the money to an account in El Salvador held in the name of “Vladimir Orlando Artiga Corado,” Corado’s birth name.

In August 2021, Corado transferred another $100,000 from the Casa Ruby account after it received an EIDL disbursement to the TIGlobal account, before then transferring $50,000 to the account in El Salvador.

Another $149,999 was transferred from TIGlobal to the account in El Salvador in six other transfers over the course of 2021, though the affidavit did not establish a connection between those transfers and COVID-19 relief funds.

The fraud was hidden from the IRS until 2022, when problems with Casa Ruby’s finances became public knowledge.

That disclosure led to Casa Ruby shutting down in July of that year due to problems with paying staff, with rent, and for upkeep of transitional housing. Corado then sold her Prince George’s County home and fled to El Salvador.

Before it shut down, Casa Ruby purported to employ 50 people and to provide services to over 6,000 people a year.

Corado returned stateside and was arrested in Laurel, Maryland, in March 2024, prosecutors said. She now faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud at her sentencing hearing in January 2025.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.