A suburban congressional candidate is awaiting trial in a federal fraud case alleging she misused COVID-19 relief funds.

Tedora M. Brown, a Palos Park resident seeking the Republican nomination for Illinois’ 11th Congressional District seat, maintained her innocence during a lengthy telephone interview Thursday.

“They came after me because I’m a Republican and I’m an American Black woman,” Brown said. “If I was guilty, why would I run for Congress? Why would I put myself in the limelight? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Brown and husband Christopher Scott fraudulently obtained at least $742,000 in small business loans and grants from the federal government for businesses that didn’t exist or weren’t operating, prosecutors alleged after their indictments in 2023.

Brown is charged with 13 counts of wire fraud. Her trial is set for June 22, 2026.

Scott, then of Hazel Crest, was charged with nine counts of wire fraud. He pleaded guilty in April to one count of wire fraud and was sentenced in August to almost six years in prison. Currently incarcerated in West Virginia, Scott also was ordered to pay $567,333 in restitution.

The charges stem from money Brown and Scott got through Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act programs between March 2020 and March 2021, the U.S. attorney’s office said in the news release that followed the indictments. Specifically, the couple defrauded the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and the Paycheck Protection Program, prosecutors alleged.

Their applications contained “materially false statements and misrepresentations” about the number of employees, gross revenues, payroll, operating expenses and other aspects of the purported businesses, according to the 2023 release.

The crime, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandro G. Ortega argued in Scott’s sentencing memorandum, “was motivated by greed.” Brown and Scott used the funds personally, prosecutors said, including to make purchases at retailers Tiffany & Co., Jared Jewelers and Saks Fifth Avenue, prosecutors said.

“This offense was not a simple lapse in judgment, or a crime born out of economic poverty or necessity,” Ortega said. “It was, at least, a yearlong scheme to fraudulently obtain free money from the government.”

In Thursday’s interview, Brown said the federal charges were connected to preschools and schools she formerly owned, including a Naperville Montessori school. She’s now president of a real estate firm called the Scottland Development Corp.

Brown insisted the companies targeted were legitimate. She pledged to fight the charges at trial.

“If I can’t fight for myself, then I can’t fight for the people in my district,” Brown said.

While acknowledging a 2018 wedding ceremony in Mexico and a license filed in Cook County, Brown also cast doubt on the legality of her marriage to Scott and on his identity. A lawyer is looking into the matter, she said.

Brown is one of four aspiring Republican candidates for the 11th District post. The others are Michael Pierce of Naperville, Elburn Mayor Jeff Walter and Aurora resident Charlie Kim. Petition filing for county, state and federal candidates in Illinois begins Monday and concludes Nov. 3.

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster of Naperville is the only declared Democratic candidate for the seat he’s held since 2013.

The 11th District encompasses portions of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will, DeKalb and Boone counties.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20251023/crime/gop-congressional-candidate-facing-wire-fraud-charges-vows-to-fight-case-at-trial/