A Minneapolis non-profit executive and business consultant, Tezzaree El-Amin Champion, has admitted guilt in a multimillion-dollar fraud case, according to the acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick. The U.S. Attorney's Office reports that Champion, 28, ran a complex scheme from 2020 to 2024 that siphoned over $6 million from various federal, state, and local sources through his two Minneapolis establishments, a marketing company, Futuristic Management LLC, and a non-profit, Encouraging Leaders.
Documents from the court reveal Encouraging Leaders, under Champion's steerage, submitted over 42 grant proposals along with follow-up communications that contained falsified information, with the intent of acquiring undeserved funding; these applications included fake board rosters, untrue claims of independent audits, invented partnerships, and requests for payment padded with inflated work hours, and the non-profit sought over $3.8 million through these grants and actually received about $1.5 million.
Champion's company, Futuristic Management, involved itself by aiding clients in filing fabricated applications to loan programs like the Paycheck Protection and Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs and Hennepin County's Small Business Relief grants, as stated by the U.S. Attorney's announcement. These applications falsely overstated incomes and expenses, bolstered with counterfeit tax and lease documents. Moreover, while tasked with offering free marketing services to local businesses under Hennepin County's Elevate Business initiative, Champion instead billed the County for services that had previously been compensated, causing a loss of more than $2.1 million.
During a search of Champion’s residence, law enforcement officers unearthed a cache of incriminating evidence that included company financial records and a safe containing $127,000 in cash as well as a firearm which Champion, due to a past felony conviction, was barred from possessing; he's now pleaded guilty to charges including wire fraud, money laundering, and the illegal possession of a firearm as a felon and agreed to restitution in the amount of at least $3,479,575 to his victims.
Investigations into Champion's fraudulent activities were carried out by multiple agencies, including IRS-Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Minneapolis Police Department's Special Crimes Investigations Division, with assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew D. Forbes and Joseph H. Thompson leading the prosecution, as noted in the official press release. The hearing for Champion’s sentencing, as well as that of his co-defendant Marcus A. Hamilton—who has pleaded guilty in connection to the scheme—will be set at a future date unannounced at present.
