A juror was dismissed after reporting how a woman dropped a bag containing $120,000 in cash at her home along with a note urging her to “acquit” defendants in a trial she was participating in.
The note offered him even more money if he went ahead with the plan to acquit seven people accused of stealing more than $40 million from a program intended to feed children during the pandemic.
The 23-year-old juror, known as Juror 52, said she immediately handed the bag of cash to police.
“This is completely out of the ordinary,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in court Monday. ‘This is scandalous behavior. This is something that happens in mafia movies.
The jury heard that a woman left it with her father-in-law on Sunday night with the message that more money would be on the way if she followed the plan.
Jury dismissed after woman left $120,000 in cash at home
Juror No. 52 Was Offered Even More Money for Voting to Acquit Seven Defendants
Defense lawyer Andrew Birrell told the judge the bag of cash is “a disturbing and disturbing allegation.”
“Let’s be honest, it wasn’t someone outside of this room,” added Thompson, who noted that the woman who handed over the cash was identified as Somali. All seven defendants on trial are from East Africa.
Thompson told how a black woman, “possibly Somali, with an accent, dressed in a long black dress” went to the jury house at 8:50 pm on Sunday.
The woman gave the juror’s father-in-law a white gift bag and said it was a gift for the juror, using the juror’s name even though his name had has not been publicly disclosed.
“The woman told the family member to tell juror number 52 to say not guilty tomorrow and there would be more of that present tomorrow,” the affidavit reads.
The gift bag contained $120,000 in cash and consisted of rolls of $100, $50 and $20 bills.
“After the woman left, the relative looked in the gift bag and saw that it contained a substantial amount of cash,” which consisted of rolls of $100, $50 and $20 bills.
When the jury returned and was told about the bag of cash, he called the police.
The money is now in the possession of the FBI.
The seven on trial are the first of 70 defendants expected to go to trial, being tried on a total of 41 criminal charges, including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering, in a conspiracy that cost taxpayers 250 million dollars.
Eighteen other people have already pleaded guilty and authorities said they recovered about $50 million in one of 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, trips and property.
During the trial that began in April, defense attorneys questioned the quality of the FBI’s investigation and suggested that this might be more a case of record-keeping issues than fraud, as these defendants sought to keep up with the rapidly changing rules for the food aid program. .
FBI agents raid Twin Cities nonprofit Feeding Our Future in January 2022
The Feeding Our Future office appears a week after an FBI raid in 2022. The nonprofit was supposed to serve meals to children.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel has confined the jury for deliberations.
These seven initial defendants were affiliated with a restaurant that participated in the food assistance program.
Among those still awaiting trial is Feeding our Future founder Aimee Bock, who has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
Before allowing the trial to continue with more closing arguments on Monday, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel questioned the remaining 17 jurors and alternates about whether they had received any bribes, but none had reported any unauthorized contact.
Brasel decided to sequester the jury for the remainder of the proceedings as a precaution.
“I don’t do it lightly,” Brasel said. ‘But I want to guarantee a fair trial. You may be wondering why this is necessary. It is necessary that you stay away from the information.
“The fact that there are only seven defendants and only seven people, other than their attorneys, who have the information to reach a juror and bribe him does not absolve me of the responsibility to protect the community,” the judge said .
He did not immediately decide whether to arrest the defendants, but he did order an FBI agent to confiscate all of the defendants’ cell phones.
“It is highly likely that someone with access to the juror’s personal information was conspiring, at a minimum, with the woman who delivered the $120,000 bribe,” FBI Special Agent Travis Wilmer wrote.
Prosecutors say only a fraction of the money intended for Feeding Our Future went to feeding low-income children, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, trips and property.
Judge Brasel said the jury was “terrified” and “at risk of retaliation.”
He also expressed concern that “someone obviously has the addresses of these jurors’ families.”
The relief money the defendants allegedly misused came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was administered by the state Department of Education.
Nonprofits and other program partners were supposed to serve meals to the children.
Two of the groups involved, Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition, were small nonprofits before the pandemic, but in 2021 they shelled out about $200 million each.
Prosecutors allege they produced invoices for meals that were never served, ran shell companies, laundered money, committed passport fraud and accepted bribes.
“The reality is that you saw overwhelming evidence of the fraud scheme,” said lead attorney Thompson. ‘Thousands of pages of evidence. Fake invoices over and over again.’