Zeno pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo in February.<\/p>\n
Ruhani, 56, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 57 months in prison, the low end of his guidelines range, by U.S. District Judge Rachel Kovner, a Donald Trump appointee.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Ruhani wasn\u2019t the person with the most power in this situation \u2026 but anybody would have known this was a wrong thing to do,\u201d Kovner said.<\/p>\n
The scandal directly led to the collapse of Queens Defenders, the group says. Last year, shortly after the indictment came down, Brooklyn Defender Services absorbed the Queens group\u2019s core work, transferring staff and contracts to the neighboring borough organization.<\/p>\n
Queens Defenders lost $35 million in contracts to represent indigent clients, the group said in a sentencing filing, along with numerous state and city contracts that didn\u2019t transfer over, \u201ccreating enormous service gaps for vulnerable New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendant\u2019s actions resulted in an institutional catastrophe that has inseparably associated the name \u2018Queens Defenders\u2019 with scandal,\u201d the group wrote.<\/p>\n
Former employees also submitted impact statements described Zeno as a corrupt and vengeful boss who used intimidation to keep employees in check, accusing her of breaking labor laws and driving away talented attorneys by perpetuating a toxic culture.<\/p>\n
Ruhani was not the first love interest of Zeno\u2019s who profited off the organization she ran, former employees said. Zeno previously hired a boyfriend who worked in construction to complete a massive renovation of a Queens Defenders office in Forest Hills by bypassing the bidding process required for nonprofits, according to Naira Grigoryan, a senior attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services of Queens.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say Zeno and Ruhani were married in a \u201creligious ceremony\u201d in August 2024, though the marriage is not legally recognized. They also say Ruhani\u2019s wife, who lives in Saudi Arabia, was among the no-show employees Zeno hired. Employees accused Zeno of hiring her own children for no-show jobs, too.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Zeno promoted Ruhani to manage Queens Defenders\u2019 youth program and gave him a company credit card. Prosecutors say the couple used organization credit cards between June 2024 and January 2025 to buy luxury clothing, pay for Mercedes-Benz repairs and fund vacations, including their honeymoon in Bali.<\/p>\n
Zeno and Ruhani were reimbursed for rent on a penthouse apartment that Zeno claimed would house a homeless minor, while concealing that they were using it themselves. DoorDash deliveries and an 85-inch smart TV purchased with organization funds helped expose the arrangement.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors urged Kovner to sentence Zeno to 51 months in prison, the low end of the guidelines range, while Zeno sought a noncustodial sentence and placed the blame on Ruhani.<\/p>\n
Zeno first hired Ruhani, who had served decades in prison, to work in a Queens Defenders program where former offenders work with young offenders in the community. He was a client advocate earning $60,000 a year and \u201cseemed a perfect addition to the Queens Defenders staff,\u201d Zeno said in her sentencing memo.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, it quickly became clear that Rashad Ruhani had his own personal agenda that went way beyond being [an] advocate for teenaged offenders,\u201d Zeno wrote, describing Ruhani as emotionally manipulating her into diverting Queens Defenders funds to support his expensive tastes.<\/p>\n
Zeno, through her defense attorney Anthony Ricco, detailed traumatic childhood experiences, an abusive marriage that resulted in her raising children as a single parent and decades of alcoholism and mental health issues. Meeting Ruhani in late 2023 amid those circumstances led to a \u201cdownward spiral,\u201d Zeno said. \u201cLori Zeno\u2019s lifetime of commitment was manipulated, exploited, derailed and destroyed. Lori Zeno lost her will, and lost her way in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since its founding in 1996, Queens Defenders<\/a> has helped more than 500,000 people with criminal, domestic violence, housing and other legal matters. The organization is funded primarily by the city and state, along with private grants, and receives some federal funding.<\/p>\n Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing
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