MINNEAPOLIS– Authorities in Minnesota have seized cellphones and taken all seven defendants into custody as investigators try to determine who tried to bribe a juror with a bag of cash containing $120,000 to get her to release them speak. accusations of theft more than $40 million from a program intended to feed children during the pandemic.
The case went to the jury late Monday afternoon after the 23-year-old juror, who immediately reported the attempted bribery to police, was dismissed and replaced by an alternate. She told the court that a woman had dropped the bag at her home and offered her more money if she voted to acquit. She said a woman left it with her father-in-law on Sunday with the message that she would get another bag of cash if she voted to acquit. a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
A second juror was dismissed Tuesday morning, KSTP TV and KARE-TV reported. According to U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel, the juror called her family Monday night to let them know the jury was being sequestered and the family member responded, “Is it because of the bribery?” The juror then reported that conversation to the court, who told her not to talk to other jurors about what she had heard. She was also replaced by an alternate.
“This is completely unimaginable,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in court Monday. “This is outrageous behavior. These are things that happen in mafia movies.”
Defense attorney Andrew Birrell told the judge the bag of cash is “a disturbing and disturbing allegation.”
FBI spokesperson Diana Freedman of Minneapolis said Tuesday she could not provide any information about the ongoing investigation.
The seven defendants are the first of 70 expected to go to trial in a conspiracy that has cost taxpayers $250 million. Eighteen others have pleaded guilty, and authorities said they have recovered about $50 million in one of the cases the country’s largest pandemic-related fraud cases. Prosecutors say only a fraction of the money went to feeding low-income children, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel and property.
During the trial, which began in April, defense attorneys questioned the quality of the FBI’s investigation and suggested that this could be a case of record-keeping problems rather than fraud as these defendants attempted to equal to keep pace with rapidly changing food aid rules. program.
These seven initial defendants were associated with a restaurant that participated in the food assistance program. Those still awaiting trial include Feeding our Future founder Aimee Bock, who has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
Before Brasel allowed the trial to proceed with final closing arguments on Monday, he interviewed the remaining 17 jurors and alternates, and no one reported any unauthorized contact at that time. As a precaution, Brasel decided to lock up the jury for the remainder of the proceedings.
“I don’t do it lightly,” Brasel said. “But I want to guarantee a fair trial.”
Brasel also ordered the arrest of all seven defendants and ordered an FBI agent to seize the defendants’ phones.
The aid money came from the US Department of Agriculture and was administered by the state Department of Education. Nonprofits and other partners under the program were required to serve meals to children.
Two of the groups involved, Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition, were small nonprofits before the pandemic, but in 2021 each paid out about $200 million. Prosecutors allege they created invoices for meals that were never served, ran shell companies, laundered money, indulged in passport fraud and accepted bribes.
