The disgraced founder of Queens Defenders and her formerly incarcerated boyfriend were charged Wednesday with fleecing the indigent-defense nonprofit for some $60,000 in personal expenses, including a $6,000-a-month penthouse apartment, vacations to Bali and Southern California, fancy restaurants and luxury goods, according to an indictment issued in federal court in Brooklyn.
As part of the scheme, which spanned half of 2024, Lori Zeno, 64, and Rashad Ruhani, 55, used the group’s credit cards to spend $10,000 on the Bali trip, enjoy a $2,600 steak dinner, buy an 85-inch television for $3,300, go on a $5,200 shopping spree, and get their teeth whitened for $600, among other expenses, the indictment alleges.
Ruhani was arrested Tuesday night at JFK Airport after he arrived on a flight from California. He was arraigned and ordered detained by Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon. Ruhani’s lawyer James Lenihan could not immediately be reached for comment.
Zeno was not in custody and was slated to be arraigned on a later date. She was ousted as executive director of the group — which represents indigent defendants — in January. She also could not be reached.
The Queens Blvd. building housing the offices of Queens Defenders. (Google)
According to the indictment, Zeno, the group’s executive director since 2018, and Ruhani, who was paroled after 26 years in state prison in 2022 for a robbery conviction, started a romance soon after Ruhani was hired as a “client advocate” in October 2023.
Zeno soon promoted Ruhani to oversee Queens Defenders’ youth programs in June 2024. From there, the couple began using the organization’s credit cards to illegally pay for a range of personal expenses, which also included the rent for the $6,000-a-month penthouse apartment in Queens.
The couple then lied repeatedly to the organization, claiming the expenses were for legitimate business purposes, to obtain reimbursement, the indictment alleges.
Between August 2024 and October 2024 alone, Ruhani submitted $39,000 in fraudulent expense reports for the cost of the penthouse apartment, which he claimed was being used for “client defense” and “foster parent care.”
Queens Defenders received roughly $368,000 in federal funds via the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The couple is charged with theft of federal funds and wire fraud.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the city Department of Investigation. A DOI spokeswoman declined comment.
Queens Defenders declined comment on the charges. Earlier this year, the city reassigned the group’s contracts to Brooklyn Defenders, a separate nonprofit that represents poor defendants in that borough.
Daniel Ball, a spokesman for Brooklyn Defenders, said the transition will be official on July 1.
“As of that date,” Ball said, “criminal defense attorneys, social workers, paralegals and other staff [from Queens Defenders] are going to be part of our organization and will continue to serve their clients and the Queens community.”
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