A jury convicted five Minnesota residents on Friday of participating in a scheme to steal more than $40 million intended to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic, but acquitted two others.
The case attracted widespread attention because someone tried to bribe a juror with a bag containing $120,000 in cash.
That juror was dismissed before deliberations began, and a second juror who had been informed of the bribery attempt was also dismissed.
The FBI investigation into the attempted bribery is ongoing, but no arrests have been announced.
The seven defendants are the first of 70 to go on trial in what federal prosecutors are calling one of the nation’s largest COVID-19-related frauds, exploiting rules that had been relaxed to keep the economy from collapsing during the pandemic.
Overall, the Minnesota scheme involved the theft of more than $250 million in federal funds, with only about $50 million ever recovered, authorities said.
The defendants were indicted on multiple charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and federal program bribery, but received split sentences.
Abdiaziz Shafi’i Farah, Mohammed Jama Ismail, Abdimadjid Mohammed Noor, Mukhtar Mohammed Sharif and Hayat Mohammed Noor were found guilty of most of the charges.
Syed Shafi’i Farah and Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin were acquitted of all charges against them.
The defense argued that the defendants served real food to real people.
An Associated Press analysis published last June documented how thieves across the country looted billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief money.
The fraudsters may have stolen more than $280 billion, and another $123 billion was wasted or improperly spent.
Combined, the losses amount to 10% of the $4.3 trillion the government spent through last fall.
According to the Department of Justice, about 3,200 defendants have been indicted and about $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic relief funds have been seized.
The Minnesota case gained attention after the judge and lawyers on both sides learned about the bribery attempt.
The judge ordered all seven defendants to turn over their cell phones so investigators could search for evidence.
She also ordered all seven held in custody and sequestered the jury pool.
According to an affidavit from an FBI agent, the night before the case was to go to the jury, a woman rang the doorbell at the home of “Juror No. 52” in the Minneapolis suburb of Spring Lake Park.
No jurors were at home, but a relative answered the door.
The woman handed the relative a gift bag with a wrapped ribbon decorated with pictures of flowers and butterflies and said it was a “present” for the juror.
“The woman told her relatives to ask Juror #52 to say not guilty tomorrow and that more jurors would be present tomorrow,” the agent wrote.
“After the woman left, the relative looked inside the gift bag and found a considerable amount of cash inside.”
Juror called police immediately after returning home and handed them a bag containing stacks of $100, $50 and $20 bills, totaling about $120,000.
The woman who placed the bag knew the jurors by name, deputies said.
The names of jurors have not been made public, but those with access to the list included prosecutors, defense lawyers and the seven defendants.
“It is highly likely that someone with access to the personal information of jurors conspired with the women to provide at least $120,000 in bribes,” FBI agents wrote, noting that the alleged fraud conspiracy at the center of the trial involved electronic communications, including text messages and emails.
The federal charges of jury tampering and influencing a juror carry a maximum possible penalty of 15 years in prison.
Food assistance was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by states, which sent the food payments through nonprofits and other partners.
As rules were relaxed to speed up the distribution of assistance to those in need, the defendants allegedly created invoices for meals that were never provided, ran shell companies, laundered money, committed passport fraud and received kickbacks.
Federal prosecutors said only a small portion of the funds the defendants received through their nonprofit organization, Feeding Our Future, went to providing meals to low-income children, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel and real estate.
In total, the seven stole more than $40 million, they said.
A common defense argument is that investigators failed to thoroughly investigate whether real children were served real meals.
Eighteen other defendants have also pleaded guilty. Among those awaiting trial is Feeding our Future founder Amy Bock.
She maintains her innocence, claiming she never committed any theft and has seen no evidence of wrongdoing among subcontractors.
