Nephew of Sen. Bobby Joe Champion federally indicted in $1 million pandemic aid fraud scheme.
Tezzaree El-Amin Champion, 27, and Marcus Alexander Hamilton, 27, devised and carried out a fraud scheme to obtain funds from a variety of federal, state, local, and private COVID-19 relief programs. Through their company, Futuristic Management Group LLC, a Minnesota-based small business consulting firm, the defendants submitted fraudulent applications for PPP loans, pandemic relief, and other funds on behalf of their small business clients and their own entities.
As part of the scheme, Champion, who was the founder and chief executive officer of Futuristic Management, and Hamilton, who was the chief operating officer, caused the consulting firm to enter into contracts with Hennepin County under a COVID-19 relief program called “Elevate Business,” also known as “Elevate Hennepin.” Elevate Business is a small business assistance program designed to provide local small businesses with no-cost marketing and website assistance. Under the contracts, Hennepin County agreed to pay Futuristic Management to provide technical assistance services to client businesses that were located in Hennepin County at no cost to the clients. Instead of abiding by the terms of the contracts, Champion and Hamilton billed Hennepin County for work not actually performed, and for work for which Champion and Hamilton were being paid by their clients, when the contracts required that Futuristic Management’s work be provided at no cost.
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