El Paso Mayoral Candidate’s Brother Indicted in Ponzi Scheme

The brother of one of the announced candidates in the El Paso Mayoral race has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly running a multi-million dollar pyramid scheme by falsely claiming to be an NBA promoter.

The El Paso candidate is Renard Johnson and the El Paso Times article does identify the man, 61-year-old Timothy France Johnson, as the “estranged” brother of candidate Renard Johnson.

To be 100% clear…Renard Johnson “has not been implicated in playing any role in the alleged crime”.

The case is interesting, nonetheless.  According to the indictment, Tim Johnson presented himself as a third-party promoter for the National Basketball Association.  The alleged Ponzi scheme involved convincing “Unwary investors” to give him money for NBA pre-season exhibition games.

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The indictment says Tim Johnson robbed investors of more than $3 Million between 2009 and 2020. There were “at least 30 investors” who were defrauded. Short version: he didn’t work with the NBA and no preseason games were ever planned or negotiated.

Candidate Renard Johnson told our news partners at KVIA, “Like the rest of the public, I learned recently that my estranged brother has been indicted. I have not seen or spoken to him in many years. I have full confidence that our judicial system will resolve these allegations.

Renard was the first announced candidate for the 2024 mayoral race. He has been joined by City Representative Cassandra Hernandez and El Paso resident Marco Contreras.

Several other names have been bandied about but so far those three are the only official candidates as of press time.