A Minneapolis business advisor was handed a prison term of seven years on Monday for his role in a $6 million fraud scheme that included stealing from a pandemic aid program.
Tezzaree El-Amin Champion, 29, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty earlier this year to wire fraud, money laundering and illegally possessing a firearm as a felon in connection with the scheme that lasted from 2020 to 2024.
While handing down her sentence, U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez said the crime “reflects a scale and a depth that is disturbing.”
According to his indictment, Champion orchestrated the schemes through two organizations: His youth mentorship nonprofit Encouraging Leaders and Futuristic Management Group LLC consulting firm that he led with an accomplice, Marcus Alexander Hamilton.
The contracts under Futuristic Management were made with Hennepin County under the pandemic relief program, Elevate Business, which was designed to provide local small businesses with marketing and website services. Champion’s company was serving as a business advisor to Hennepin County under the program, court records said.
Hennepin County agreed to pay Futuristic Management to provide free tech assistance for client businesses in the county. In reality, federal prosecutors said, Champion and Hamilton billed the county for work they never provided or should have provided for free. The scheme caused a $2.1 million loss, according to the indictment.
Court records further said that Encouraging Leaders, founded by Champion, submitted 42 fraudulent grants seeking more than $3.8 million from the county, state and the federal government. He was granted $2.7 million for grants earmarked for various efforts such as opioid recovery and juvenile justice re-entry.
Champion instead diverted “significant portions” of the grant funds to himself, prosecutors said, including for lavish personal trips that he marked as a business expense.
