Encouraging Leaders
Outcome
Tezzaree El-Amin Champion, founder of Encouraging Leaders, sentenced to 84 months in prison and $3,479,575 restitution for defrauding the nonprofit of over $3.4 million; operations director Tony Robinson separately charged with wire fraud and conspiracy.
Details
Encouraging Leaders / Tezzaree El-Amin Champion — $3.4M Nonprofit Fraud, Minneapolis (2021–2022)
Outcome: Champion sentenced November 18, 2025 to 84 months imprisonment and $3,479,575 restitution; co-conspirator Tony Robinson made initial court appearance December 1, 2025 on wire fraud and conspiracy charges.
Tezzaree El-Amin Champion founded and led Encouraging Leaders, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit. Between December 2021 and October 2022, Champion defrauded the organization of over $3.4 million in a scheme the sentencing judge described as "relentless" and reflecting "a scale and a depth that is disturbing." Operations director Tony Robinson participated in the fraud from December 2021 through October 2022, causing losses exceeding $1 million during his period of participation.
Champion was sentenced November 18, 2025 by a U.S. District Court judge in the District of Minnesota to 84 months (7 years) of imprisonment followed by 60 months supervised release, plus full restitution. Robinson was charged with five counts of wire fraud and conspiracy offenses and made his initial court appearance December 1, 2025.
The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the Minneapolis Police Department—a multi-agency investigation reflecting the scale and complexity of the fraud.
Primary Source: Minneapolis Non-Profit Director Charged with Fraud
How Crucible Prevents This
Crucible's dual-signatory controls for disbursements above threshold, mandatory board oversight of executive compensation, and automated reconciliation between grant receipts and documented program expenditures would prevent a founder from unilaterally diverting $3.4M from operations. The involvement of an operations director as co-conspirator suggests organizational fraud culture that Crucible's session-level enforcement across all authorized personnel would surface through anomaly pattern detection.
Don't let this happen to your organization. See how Crucible works.
See How Crucible Works