The jury was dismissed Monday after a woman reported leaving a bag with $120,000 in cash in her home and offering to pay more if she voted to acquit seven people charged with stealing more than $40 million from programs meant to feed children during the pandemic.
“This is completely outrageous,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in court Monday. “This is outrageous conduct. It’s the kind of thing you see in mob movies.”
The seven are the first of 70 defendants expected to go to trial in a conspiracy that cost taxpayers $250 million. Eighteen others have pleaded guilty, and authorities said they recovered about $50 million in one of the nation’s largest pandemic-related fraud cases. Prosecutors say only a small portion of the money recovered went to feed low-income children, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel and real estate.
Minnesota Democratic Senator’s party calls for him to resign over theft allegations
The 23-year-old juror said he immediately handed the bag of cash over to police. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the woman gave it to her stepfather on Sunday, telling him he would give her another bag of cash if he voted not guilty.
A juror in a Minnesota fraud trial has been dismissed after alleging he tried to offer a six-figure bribe in exchange for an acquittal for a defendant. (Fox News)
Defence lawyer Andrew Birrell told the judge the bag of cash was a “disturbing and upsetting allegation”.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brazel questioned the remaining jurors and 17 alternate jurors on Monday before allowing further closing arguments to proceed, but none reported any unauthorized contact. The judge did not immediately decide whether to sequester the jurors or detain the defendants, but she did order FBI agents to seize the defendants’ cellphones.
The money was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by the state Department of Education, and the program’s nonprofits and other partners were supposed to provide meals to the children.
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Two of the groups involved, Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition, were small nonprofits before the pandemic but each spent roughly $200 million in 2021. Prosecutors allege the groups created invoices for meals that weren’t served, ran shell companies, laundered money, engaged in passport fraud and accepted kickbacks.
