{"id":228564,"date":"2026-03-31T13:11:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228564\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:11:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:11:22","slug":"mayors-brother-timothy-johnson-pleads-guilty-to-ponzi-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228564\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor\u2019s Brother, Timothy Johnson, Pleads Guilty to Ponzi Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ephp_2-4-980x551.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"A photo illustration of handcuffs over basketball players.\" decoding=\"async\"  \/>  <\/p>\n<p>EL PASO, Tx., March 31, 2026: Yesterday, the United States Attorney\u2019s Office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-wdtx\/pr\/el-paso-man-pleads-guilty-defrauding-investors-third-party-nba-preseason-game-promoter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">released a statement<\/a> announcing that El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson\u2019s brother has pleaded guilty to a Ponzi scheme involving NBA preseason tickets. According to the statement, Timothy Johnson faces up to 20 years per count in federal prison after pleading guilty on March 27 to seven counts.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/civispulse.com\/pulse.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"970\" height=\"250\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/civis_polls_1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-895\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to the FBI investigation, between February 9, 2009, through May 14, 2020, Timothy Johnson recruited several individuals to invest in a fictional NBA marketing program that included pre-season tickets. Timothy Johnson promised investors returns as high as 33% in addition to promising the investors that their investments were insured and had no risk of losses.<\/p>\n<p>Timothy Johnson would use subsequent investments in the scheme to pay initial investors. Paying initial investors with money from later investors is a classic Ponzi scheme. The federal attorney\u2019s office provided examples of victims of the scheme who gave Timothy Johnson around $370,000 as investments in the fraudulent scheme.<\/p>\n<p>He was charged in April 2024 as his brother, Renard Johnson, was running for the mayor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>At the time that news broke that his brother had been arrested on fraud charges, Renard Johnson <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasonews.org\/2024\/04\/16\/renard-johnson-his-estranged-brother-and-the-ponzi-scheme\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> that he \u201clearned recently that my estranged brother has been indicted,\u201d adding that had \u201cnot seen or spoken to him in many years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"788\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bday_pic-788x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1187\"  \/>Photograph of Renard Johnson on the left celebrating Timothy Johnson\u2019s birthday, March 4, 2013, posted to Management and Engineering Technologies International, Inc. (METI) official Facebook profile.<\/p>\n<p>The indictment charging Timothy Johnson with fraud named a company, \u201cCompany M,\u201d as Timothy Johnson\u2019s place of employment while he was committing the fraud. Records <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasonews.org\/2024\/04\/16\/renard-johnson-his-estranged-brother-and-the-ponzi-scheme\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/elpasonews.org\/2024\/04\/16\/renard-johnson-his-estranged-brother-and-the-ponzi-scheme\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">show<\/a> that Renard and Timothy Johnson both worked at least 45 years in their parent\u2019s business, Management and Engineering Technologies International, Inc. (METI).<\/p>\n<p>Renard Johnson again reiterated in a statement that he had not been in contact with his \u201cestranged\u201d brother. The mayor closed his statement with \u201cI remain focused on my work and on serving the people of El Paso.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A sentencing date for Timothy Johnson has not been set.<\/p>\n<p>Like Us and Follow Us On Our Social Media!<\/p>\n<p>Visited 18 times, 18 visit(s) today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Tx., March 31, 2026: Yesterday, the United States Attorney\u2019s Office released a statement announcing that El&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139,88421,88422,3499,88423],"class_list":{"0":"post-228564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-news","11":"tag-inc-meti","12":"tag-management-and-engineering-technologies-international","13":"tag-renard-johnson","14":"tag-tim-johnson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}