LGBTQ nonprofit founder finally arrested on fraud and money laundering charges after TWO years on the run after she ‘transferred $150,000 of Covid relief funds to her own bank account.’

The founder of a Washington DC nonprofit that served homeless LGBTQ+ youth was arrested on fraud and money laundering charges two years after she left the United States.

Ruby Corado, 53, is alleged to have received more than $1.3 million over two years from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.

Instead of using the funds as promised, he stole at least $150,000 by transferring the money to bank accounts in El Salvador under his birth name, keeping the funds hidden from the IRS, court documents allege.

After it was publicly revealed that Corado was under investigation in 2022, he sold his property in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and left for El Salvador.

Casa Ruby closed its doors in July 2022, when it failed to pay its employees, closed its transitional housing, and faced eviction from several properties for not paying rent.

The organization used charitable donations from the public and grants from the district government to fund its services.

It employed nearly 50 people before closing and provided more than 30,000 social and human services to more than 6,000 people each year.

The D.C. attorney general’s office asked a D.C. Superior Court judge to freeze Corado’s bank accounts and prevent him from withdrawing any more funds.

Until that point, Corado was still taking funds from the organization’s accounts, which he maintained control of after his resignation, the District alleged.

Corado was arrested by the FBI at a hotel in Laurel, Maryland, on Tuesday.

She faces federal charges of bank fraud, wire fraud, monetary transactions with proceeds of crime, laundering monetary instruments and failure to file a report of a foreign bank account.

‘There is probable cause to believe that CORADO, former executive director of a nonprofit organization called Casa Ruby, fraudulently obtained funds from government-backed loan programs and diverted those funds to her bank account(s). ) located outside the United States. ‘ an FBI agent swore in an arrest affidavit.

‘And CORADO, who is a lawful permanent resident of the United States, has never reported his foreign bank account(s) to the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, as required by law.’

In November 2022, the DC Attorney General’s Office filed a complaint alleging that Corado transferred more than $400,000 from the organization to his personal accounts between April 2021 and September 2021.

She was also accused of violating District laws by paying workers less than the minimum wage and not paying them full wages for hours worked. The lawsuit is still pending.

Corado denied the allegations when speaking to News4 from El Salvador and said she was singled out for speaking out against Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration and a discrimination complaint she filed against the D.C. Department of Human Services.

Bank fraud carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and wire fraud carries up to 20 years. Money laundering charges last up to 20 years.