Trans Activist, Ruby Corado, Sentenced To Prison For Fraud

January 15, 2026 Margaret Hetherman

The former Director of LGBTQ+ nonprofit, Casa Ruby, pleaded guilty for diverting COVID relief funds and must pay back nearly $1 million – deportation likely.

Featured Image: Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post via Getty Images

She was revered for her trans activism and the founding of Casa Ruby, a now-defunct Washington D.C. LGBTQ+ services organization—but on Jan. 13, Ruby Jade Corado, 54, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for diverting at least $150,000 in Covid-relief funds to offshore bank accounts for personal use. The news was announced by former Fox News Host, now U.S. Attorney, Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

“You came to this country hiding under the floorboards of a vegetable truck and this country gave you refuge,” Judge Trevor N. McFadden told Ruby Corado as he sentenced her at the Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse. “You betrayed this country.”

Reportedly, she wept and asked the Court for leniency.

“I wish I could’ve done things differently, but it is already done,” she said, before receiving the sentence. “I got caught up in my mission to help others. But I am the first one to hold myself accountable.”

Corado had pleaded guilty on July 17, 2024, to wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden. In addition to prison time, Judge McFadden ordered her to serve two years of supervised release and to pay $956,215 in restitution to the Small Business Administration (SBA).

“Corado received more than $1.3 million from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program for the non-profit Casa Ruby,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro, referring to the taxpayer-backed emergency funds that were disseminated to help organizations stay afloat during the Pandemic. “Instead of using the funds as promised, Corado stole over $950,000, transferred at least $150,000 to bank accounts in El Salvador, and hid it from the IRS,” according to the release from the DOJ.

These events have cast a cloud over what would otherwise have been her remarkable and uplifting story. It began in the 1980s when Corado fled El Salvador as a teenager, only to find herself unhoused on the streets of D.C. As a sex worker and trans woman, Corado found that local shelters were not safe for people in her situation, and eventually set out to create a drop-in shelter to help those in vulnerable positions. Small at first, and run by volunteers, the enterprise known as Casa Ruby ultimately grew into a multi-site operation that she claimed served up to 6,000 people a day.

WASHINGTON, DC – Ruby Corado (seated) with LGBT clients of Casa Ruby. When she was only 16, her father encouraged her to leave El Salvador and go to the U.S. She arrived in DC alone, no family, and without resources. She became a sex worker for several years and at times was homeless. She eventually evolved into an activist for LGBT with emphasis on latin transgender people. (Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Then in 2022, after she failed to pay employees, as well as rent on multiple properties, the organization effectively shut down its transitional housing operation. Court documents from that year indicate that as scrutiny mounted, Corado sold her home and fled to El Salvador, abandoning Casa Ruby to a state of financial collapse. This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office and the D.C. Office of Inspector General. Corado was arrested by FBI agents on March 5, 2024, at a hotel in Laurel, Maryland, when she unexpectedly returned to the United States.

“Casa Ruby had claimed to provide housing services for homeless LGBTQ+ youth including transitional housing,” reads the DOJ’s statement. “The organization also claimed to assist LGBTQ+ immigrants by providing social services such as case management and therapeutic mental health support for survivors of violence, and to assist with a wide array of services such as assisting with passport applications and certain visa applications.”

Regarding sentencing, her attorney, Pleasant S. Brodnax, asked for reduced time given Corado’s history of providing shelter, food, and counseling for thousands of LGBTQ+ youth, as well as her own challenges as a transgender refugee fending for herself in Washington, D.C. He argued that she would be put in harm’s way if forced into a men’s prison, as per new Trump administration rules mandating that prisoners be placed in units aligned with their gender assigned at birth. Brodnax also claimed that “Corado intended to use the funds from the loans to spearhead Casa Ruby’s services in El Salvador.”

In addition to financial and prison-time penalties, Corado, who is a legal permanent resident of the U.S., awaits deportation proceedings from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Judge McFadden said that “deportation is likely, if not certain.”