Ruby Corado, the founder of Casa Ruby, a now-shuttered nonprofit service center and shelter for LGBTQIA youth in D.C., has been arrested and charged with multiple financial crimes after spending about two years on the lam.
FBI agents arrested Corado, 53, on March 5 at a hotel in Laurel after her “unexpected return” to the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. She allegedly fled to her native El Salvador in 2022 after evidence of her financial improprieties involving Casa Ruby started coming to light, according to federal prosecutors.
Corado is charged in U.S. District Court with bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and other financial crimes. The criminal complaint alleges that Corado diverted at least $150,000 of the $1.3 million in funds from various pandemic relief programs to her bank account in El Salvador through an account she set up for another D.C.-based business called TIGlobal Logistics. The account in El Salvador is under her dead name, according to the complaint.
Casa Ruby was founded in 2012 and provided services and shelter for LGBTQIA youth. The D.C. Attorney General’s Office has said that Casa Ruby received $9.6 million in grants from city agencies throughout its lifetime. The organization closed in 2022, around the same time that investigations revealed years of mismanagement, including under and unpaid staff, more that $1 million in unpaid rent, and millions owed to creditors. Corado is alleged to have withdrawn more than $400,000 from Casa Ruby’s bank accounts in 2021 via ATMs in the U.S. and El Salvador.
The OAG filed a civil complaint against Corado in November 2022, accusing her of transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars from Casa Ruby into her personal accounts. The Wanda Alston Foundation was later appointed by the court to act as a receiver for the nonprofit. The foundation revealed that Casa Ruby had debts totaling $2 million, with “no meaningful assets” and also filed a civil complaint against the nonprofit’s board of directors. The foundation alleged in the complaint that the board never met, did not keep records, and failed to oversee Corado, allowing her to embezzle more than $800,000.
