Lori Zeno, former executive director of Queens Defenders, a nonprofit legal services organization, was sentenced to 43 months in federal prison for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the organization. Rashad Ruhani, a former employee, received a 57-month sentence for his role in the same scheme.
United States District Judge Rachel P. Kovner imposed the sentences today in federal court in Brooklyn. Both defendants were convicted of orchestrating a theft scheme targeting Queens Defenders, which provides legal representation to low-income residents in Queens.
Ruhani’s longer sentence reflects his greater culpability in the embezzlement plot. The exact amounts stolen by each defendant were not specified in the sentencing announcement, though prosecutors characterized the total as “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Queens Defenders operates as a nonprofit providing criminal defense, family law, and immigration services to residents who cannot afford private counsel. The organization serves some of the city’s most vulnerable populations, making the embezzlement scheme a direct diversion of resources intended for legal aid.
No additional details about the mechanics of the scheme, the timeline of the theft, or how the fraud was discovered were included in the court announcement. The sentencing marks the conclusion of federal charges against both defendants in the Eastern District of New York.
