A judge on Monday sentenced a one-time Minneapolis business consultant to seven years in federal prison for a multimillion dollar scheme to defraud government pandemic aid programs.

Through his marketing company Futuristic Management Group and a nonprofit that he started, Tezzaree El-Amin Champion submitted phony loan applications to the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program as well as a Hennepin County small business grant program.

Champion, 28, pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud, money laundering and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Champion is ineligible to own guns following his 2018 conviction in Hennepin County for shooting a man amid a dispute over a vehicle sale.

Marcus Hamilton, 29, Champion’s business partner and co-defendant, als

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