EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The El Paso mayor’s brother has been sentenced to over 4 years in prison for running an NBA Ponzi scheme<\/p>\n
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 63-year-old Timothy France Johnson, brother of Mayor Renard Johnson, was sentenced on Friday to 51 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $3,148,094.48 after he had pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud and three counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity in March. <\/p>\n
Court documents detail that Johnson ran the scheme for 11 years, lying to investors by telling them he would use their money to promote NBA preseason games, when in reality he was fabricating contracts and financial statements, and using the money to pay off earlier investors and for personal expenses. <\/p>\n
A separate restitution hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19.<\/p>\n
Johnson was charged in April 2024. <\/p>\n
RELATED: El Paso mayor’s brother pleads guilty to wire fraud in NBA preseason game Ponzi scheme<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cJohnson carried out his Ponzi scheme for over a decade, all to cultivate an image of success and importance that was a complete fa\u00e7ade,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Simmons. \u201cHe convinced numerous victims to entrust him with thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of their hard-earned dollars, simply to feed his own pride and ego. Johnson\u2019s scheme was complex, and he was successful in earning the trust of many investors. However, this case shows that no matter how long you criminally leech off of others and no matter how much you believe you\u2019ll get away with it, your time will come. Justice will be served.\u201d<\/p>\n