The founder of a D.C. nonprofit that provided services to the LGBTQ community has pleaded guilty to funneling at least $150,000 in COVID-19 relief funds into her personal bank account in El Salvador.
As part of a plea agreement, Ruby Corado, 53, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Wednesday to a wire fraud charge that stemmed from accusations she stole the emergency relief funds for personal use, according to a news release from the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Corado’s nonprofit received more than $1.3 million of taxpayer-backed funds from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Corado moved at least $150,000 of those funds into her personal bank account and hid the theft from the IRS, prosecutors said.
The fraud scheme began in March 2020 and lasted, at least, through October 2021, according to court documents.
In court Wednesday, Corado told the judge she understood the terms of the plea deal and intended on talking more about a project to which she claims the money went at her sentencing in January. She agreed to pay restitution on those stolen funds.
She’s facing up to 20 years in prison. She’s set to be sentenced on Jan. 10, 2025.
Casa Ruby shut down in July 2022 amid financial turmoil. The nonprofit closed its shelter sites amid reports of overdue rent, unpaid staff and threats of eviction.
Meanwhile, the D.C. attorney general filed a civil complaint, accusing Corado of funneling more than $400,000 intended for the nonprofit’s work into personal bank accounts.
When word of alleged fraud began spreading, Corado sold her home in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and fled to El Salvador. Authorities said she unexpectedly returned to the U.S. and was arrested in Maryland in early March.
Corado was originally charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transactions in criminally derived proceeds, and failure to file a report of foreign bank account.
In her loan applications, Corado agreed to use emergency pandemic funds for Casa Ruby’s payroll costs, utilities, as well as rent and mortgage, according to court documents.
She also promised not to transfer those funds “to any owner or partner or any of its employees, or to any company directly or indirectly controlling or affiliated with or controlled by Borrower, or any other company” without the Small Business Administration’s permission.
Yet prosecutors said she transferred the money into her own personal accounts. Among those accounts was one she opened in the name of a nonprofit she registered in D.C., TIGloballogistics, LLC. Corado was the sole owner of that nonprofit, which offered consulting services and was unaffiliated with Casa Ruby.
Corado applied to SBA for a loan to TIGlobal but that application was denied in February 2021. Prosecutors alleged that application was an attempt to further the fraud scheme.
WTOP’s Mike Murillo and Jack Moore contributed to this report.
