A second Minnesota juror has been changed days after another juror in the $40 million fraud case said someone gave her almost $120,000 in cash in exchange for not being charged.
The trial of seven people accused of wasting millions of dollars meant to feed children during the pandemic has lost two jurors and gained two more.
The second juror was taken out of the case on Tuesday after a family member asked if the jury was being held back because of the alleged bribe.
An FBI search warrant document says that the first juror said she was offered a bribe the night before the hearing when a woman brought her a gift bag full of cash and left it with a family member. She said she wasn’t home on Sunday when the cash was brought to her.
The visitor knew the woman’s first name and told her family member that there would “be more of that present tomorrow” if the juror agreed to find the defendants not guilty, according to the statement. The jurors’ names have not been made public. The juror told the cops about what happened.
The FBI said that all of the defendants, their lawyers, and the prosecutors could see that juror’s personal details. The suspects were told by U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel to give up their cellphones, and all seven were arrested.
As the trial was coming to an end, the alleged bribe took place. This was the first trial in a huge Covid relief funding plan that prosecutors say is the biggest of its kind. Seventeen people have been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota with fraud involving the charity Feeding Our Future that is said to have cost $250 million. 18 have pleaded guilty, according to the police.
One of the sponsors for the Federal Child Nutrition Program was Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors said that the nonprofit’s workers found people and groups to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites all over Minnesota. Prosecutors say that in 2021, Feeding Our Future got and spent almost $200 million in government funds, up from about $3.4 million in 2019.
The government program was meant to give kids and families with low incomes free, healthy meals. The prosecutors said the program gave the suspects more than $40 million. A criminal complaint says that from April 2020 to January 2022, the defendants spent money on personal luxuries like multiple homes and properties and luxury cars, even though they said they fed millions of children.
There were federal charges in September 2022, and U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said in a statement, “This was a brazen scheme of staggering proportions.” “During the COVID-19 pandemic, these defendants took advantage of a program that was meant to give hungry kids healthy food.” Instead, they put their own greed first.
The jury is now sitting in secret to decide what will happen to Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, and Hayat Mohamed Nur. They are being charged with felony conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery of government programs, and laundering money. All of them have said they are not guilty.
Frederick Goetz, an attorney for Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, told NBC News that his client “had absolutely no part in it” when it came to the accused juror bribery. Tuesday, requests for feedback from the lawyers of the other six defendants were not answered.
