Ruby Corado, a popular leftwing activist known as “Vladimir Orlando Artiga Corado,” was sentenced to 33 months in prison and restitution of over $950,000 after previously pleading guilty to wire fraud in connection with a massive COVID-19 money laundering scheme.
Corado ran a leftwing organization called Casa Ruby, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit whose stated mission was to support LGBTQ homeless youth and immigrants.
Ruby Jade Corado, the founder of the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Casa Ruby, Inc., has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for diverting at least $150,000 in taxpayer-backed emergency COVID-19 relief funds to private offshore bank accounts.https://t.co/5XUPh7vioz
— 7News DC (@7NewsDC) January 14, 2026
In court documents filed ahead of today’s sentencing, Corado admitted that in 2020 she illegally wired at least $200,000 in federal COVID funds to her personal account in El Salvador.
The nearly $1 million in federal funds that Corado received were intended to keep her DC-based LGBTQ+ nonprofit afloat during the pandemic.
“I am sorry that my mistake impacted my work,” Corado told District Judge Trevor McFadden ahead of her sentencing.
According to local DC affiliate WUSA9, Corado told the federal judge she was in over her head and insisted that the money was intended to open a shelter for LGBTQ+ individuals in her home country of El Salvador.
“The main goal was to make sure that people did not migrate and come to the United States,” Corado told WUSA9 in an exclusive sit-down interview last October.
“I am very dubious of that,” McFadden told Corado.
He pointed at the fact that Corado’s team had never provided evidence of any attempts to apply for a nonprofit in El Salvador or documentation that she had secured a building for the shelter.
“You betrayed this country,” McFadden continued, arguing that Corado had stolen funds when the unhoused in the U.S. were most at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You spotted an opportunity to defraud the American people,” McFadden said.
“Your deportation is likely if not certain, ” McFadden told Corado.
Corado has denied that the funds were used for personal use.
According to a Washington Post report, the Department of Justice (DOJ) tried to freeze Ruby’s bank accounts years ago when it was determined there was financial mismanagement. Corado allegedly then fled to El Salvador in 2022 with some of the organization’s funds.
Corado returned to Laurel, Maryland, where the FBI arrested her in March 2024, according to WUSA9.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro submitted a memorandum in October recommending the 33-month prison sentence imposed on behalf of “the ultimate victim of the financial fraud … the taxpayers.”
Corado’s legal battles could continue even after today’s ruling.
In 2022, DC’s Office of the Attorney General filed a civil lawsuit following allegations that Casa Ruby employees had gone unpaid.
Prosecutors secured a judgment that Corado is personally and legally responsible for failing to pay employees.
Pirro stated that Corado funneled COVID-19 funds to offshore bank accounts and left employees, Corado’s landlord and partners “flat broke.”