Former Queens Defenders boss stole tens of thousands of dollars from organization she founded, feds say

Lori Zeno (center), the former executive director of Queens Defenders, was charged with fraud on wednesday after prosecutors said she stol tens of thousands of dollars from the organization she founded. AP file photo by Kevin Hagen

By Jacob Kaye

The former director of a legal services nonprofit in Queens and her husband, who also worked for the nonprofit, were charged in federal court on Wednesday for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the organization, which was primarily funded by city tax dollars and has received millions of dollars in government contracts over the past three decades.

Federal prosecutors said in an indictment that Lori Zeno, the longtime leader and founder of Queens Defenders, and her husband, Rashad Ruhani, used a credit card issued to the organization to fund a luxury vacation to Bali, a teeth-whitening procedure, a night at a high-end steakhouse and other personal purchases.

Prosecutors also say the pair lied to their co-workers, asking for reimbursements on personal expenses, like rent on their $6,000-a-month penthouse apartment while claiming the charges were business expenses.

Ruhani was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Tuesday night after arriving in Queens after a trip to California. Zeno has not yet been arrested and is expected to be arraigned at a later date, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

The indictment comes nearly six months after Zeno, her husband and two other Queens Defenders employees were forced out of the organization by the group’s board of directors. The board’s chair, Doneath Powell, did not publicly give a reason for Zeno’s ouster, but said in a letter to Queens Defenders staffers and attorneys in January that Zeno had been placed on leave “as a result of information” received by the board.

On Wednesday, Powell said that the board had suspended – and later fired – Zeno after “identifying several irregularities.”

The fallout was swift. The city cut at least one major contract it had with Queens Defenders, handing the $32 million contract to provide legal services to indigent defendants over to Brooklyn Defender Services.

The move has resulted in a diminished Queens Defenders, whose criminal defense attorneys are expected to be hired by BDS by July 1, according to BDS. While Queens Defenders will continue to fulfill contracts it has to provide legal representation for tenants facing eviction, it will no longer have a criminal defense practice.

“We are deeply saddened by the nature of these allegations against two former employees,” Powell said in a statement. “Queens Defenders holds itself to the highest standards of ethics and accountability. The alleged actions do not reflect who we are as an organization or the values we uphold. This is a difficult moment, but we are committed to transparency, accountability, and moving forward with strength and integrity.”

Zeno could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, which decided in March to strip the contract from Queens Defenders, declined to comment for this story. A spokesperson for the agency told the Eagle in March that MOCJ was “taking a proactive approach with the Queens Defenders in order to ensure stability and minimize disruptions to the attorneys and cases involved.” The spokesperson also said that the agency had “initiated a financial and operational review after identifying red flags during our routine oversight” of Queens Defenders.

Prosecutors claim that Zeno and her husband’s fraudulent spending occurred between June 2024 and January 2025.

The pair allegedly racked up over $10,000 worth of expenses on a personal vacation they took together to Bali in September 2024. They used a Queens Defenders credit card to pay for the trip, prosecutors say.

In a March interview with the Eagle, Zeno mentioned the tropical island twice during a wide-ranging conversation about the future of Queens Defenders and her forced leave from it.

“I want to fly off to Bali somewhere, and live the rest of my life in peace,” she said when asked if she was worried about the financial future of the organization she founded.

Prosecutors also alleged that Zeno used the organization’s corporate credit card to pay for over $1,700 in expenses at a luxury resort in Santa Monica, California.

They also allegedly used the card to pay for a $1,300 bill at a high-end restaurant in July 2024, a $5,200 purchase at a luxury goods store and a $1,300 purchase at a clothing store both in August 2024, the month the pair were wed in a religious ceremony that prosecutors say may not have been a legal marriage.

Ruhani also used the card on his own, prosecutors said, spending $2,600 at a steak house and $3,300 on an 85-inch smart television and its installment in his Astoria apartment, which they also paid for with the organization’s money.

According to prosecutors, Ruhani submitted reimbursement requests to Queens Defenders to pay for the luxury apartment and the utility bills he racked up while living there.

In all, the couple allegedly received $39,000 in reimbursements from Queens Defenders to pay for the apartment, according to the charges.

The couple allegedly attempted to cover up the fraud by hiring two people close to them to work as Zeno’s executive assistants and submit fake expense reports, prosecutors said. The workers were officially brought on to serve in non-existent positions with little to no responsibilities, a court document alleges. One of the employees brought on to help with the cover up, Ureka Washington, was Ruhani’s legal wife.

In March, Zeno, who was believed at the time to be under federal investigation, told the Eagle that she had “every bit of proof that I need, about every single allegation that was made” ahead of her ouster from Queens Defenders.

Despite her long tenure at Queens Defenders, Zeno’s work at the organization was not without controversy.

In 2021, Zeno was accused of firing two staffers who were attempting to unionize the public defense group. While Zeno claimed the terminations were related to the employees’ job performances, she was vocal in her opposition to the union effort.

That same year, Zeno sparked outrage when she refused to close Queens Defenders’ offices during a COVID-19 outbreak. In an email to staff, she said that one of their colleagues had contracted the virus and had reached out to those they may have come in contact with. In reality, Zeno was the infected staffer, something she later admitted to the office in an email.

“The anonymous person that has tested positive for COVID is me,” Zeno’s email to staff read, as reported by the Daily News at the time. “I did not tell you before now, because I was afraid. Unfortunately, the old accusations and allegations have surfaced again about me and the culture we have at QD, because of how terrible I am as a person and as a boss.”

Also in 2021, Zeno was sued by a former Queens Defenders employee who claimed that the executive director retaliated against her after she requested workplace accommodations for multiple physical ailments she was suffering from.

In the complaint, the former employee alleged Zeno fostered an “abusive work environment.”

Among the incidents cited in the complaint was an October 2019 sexual harassment training, where Zeno allegedly told the training facilitator that gossiping about intimate relationships between co-workers was acceptable.

“Everyone knows everyone here is f––king everyone else and we all talk about it,” Zeno said, according to the complaint.

In Zeno’s March interview with the Eagle, the former executive director admitted that she had been accused of misconduct in the past, but claimed that the accusations were often lobbed by those hoping to take her position atop the organization.

“There have been many times in the past that people have made accusations because they were convenient for them,” she said. “Then…it turns out that those accusations are not true and those people who either write about it or talk about it, or whatever – nobody comes back and says, ‘Oh, by the way, you know that actually wasn't true, she actually didn't do that.’ That's the frustrating part for me.”

This story was updated at 4:17 p.m. on Wednesday, June 11, 2025.