Lori Zeno, the former executive director of Queens Defenders, appeared prepared on Tuesday to plead guilty to federal fraud charges – until she suddenly wasn’t.
Read MoreProsecutors alleged earlier this month that Lori Zeno, the former executive director of Queens Defenders, and her husband, Rashad Ruhani, stole at least $300,000 from the legal nonprofit to fund luxury vacations, trips to expensive restaurants and their penthouse apartment in Astoria. The total in alleged stolen funds is five times larger than the sum they were originally accused of pilfering earlier this year.
Read MoreOne of the city’s top public defender organizations recently faced backlash from its union after an announced candidate for director of their immigration practice sparked outrage.
Read MoreA music media personality was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly hiding evidence in the ongoing fraud case against former Queens Defenders executive director Lori Zeno and her husband, Rashad Ruhani.
Read MoreThe controversial former head of Queens Defenders was let off with a warning by a judge on Monday after prosecutors alleged that she had continued to attempt to steal funds from her former nonprofit as she awaits trial.
Read MoreLori Zeno, the former head of Queens Defenders accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars with her husband from the nonprofit she founded, has continued to siphon money from the organization as she awaits trial, according to the feds.
Read MoreThe boss of a top New York City public defense group tried to break up her organization's own attorney union by urging a lawyer to launch a competing one, union leaders alleged on Friday.
Read MoreIn the immediate weeks following the forced departure of Queens Defenders’ controversial executive director, Lori Zeno, the atmosphere inside the legal services nonprofit felt noticeably lighter.
Read MoreAttorneys at Brooklyn Defender Services, the legal services group that absorbed Queens Defenders’ criminal practice last month, picketed their employer on Thursday over a recent change in employment policy.
Read MoreFederal prosecutors say that since being cuffed last month, Rashad Ruhani, a one-time senior legal advocate at the legal services nonprofit, has done little to prove that he should be allowed to bail out of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Read MoreQueens Defenders officially had its criminal defense practice taken over by a Brooklyn-based legal services provider on Tuesday, around three weeks after its former executive director was arrested on federal fraud charges.
Read MoreFormer Queens Defenders Executive Director and founder Lori Zeno appeared in court in Brooklyn on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to fraud charges.
Read MoreAn attorney with the controversy-embroiled Queens Defenders was busted for allegedly trying to smuggle THC-soaked paper into a Rikers Island facility on Wednesday.
Read MoreLori Zeno, the former head of Queens Defenders, allegedly stole tens of thousands of dollars from the organization she founded to fund luxury vacations, a teeth-whitening procedure and other personal expenses, prosecutors said this week.
Read MoreQueens Defenders, the World’s Borough’s largest public defender organization, is facing an uncertain future after the city said that it no longer trusted the firm to carry out the promise of a $32 million contract to provide criminal defense to low-income New Yorkers in Queens.
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