A federal juror was dismissed from duty on Monday after reporting that a woman dropped a bag of $120,000 in cash at her home – and offered her more money if she would vote to acquit seven people charged with stealing more than $40m from a program meant to feed children during the pandemic.
“This is completely beyond the pale,” said Joseph Thompson, assistant US attorney, in court on Monday. “This is outrageous behavior. This is stuff that happens in mob movies.”
The seven defendants in question are the first of 70 expected to go to trial in a conspiracy that cost taxpayers $250m. Eighteen others have pleaded guilty, and authorities said they recovered about $50m in one of the nation’s largest pandemic-related fraud cases. Prosecutors say just a fraction of the money went to feed low-income kids, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel 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 of a case of record-keeping problems than fraud as these defendants sought to keep up with rapidly changing rules for the food aid program.
These seven initial defendants were affiliated with a restaurant that participated in the food aid program. Those still awaiting trial include Feeding our Future’s founder Aimee Bock, who has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
The 23-year-old juror said she immediately turned over the bag of cash to police. 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, according to a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The defense attorney Andrew Birrell told the judge that the bag of cash is “a troubling and upsetting accusation”.
Before allowing the trial to continue with more closing arguments on Monday, the US district judge, Nancy Brasel, questioned the remaining 17 jurors and alternates, and none reported any unauthorized contact. Brasel decided to sequester the jury for the rest of the proceeding as a precaution.
“I don’t do it lightly,” Brasel said. “But I want to ensure a fair trial.”
She did not decide immediately whether to detain the defendants, but she did order an FBI agent to confiscate the defendants’ phones.
The aid money came from the US Department of Agriculture and was administered by the state department of education. Non-profits and other partners under the program were supposed to serve meals to kids.
Two of the groups involved, Feeding Our Future and Partners in Nutrition, were small non-profits before the pandemic, but in 2021 they disbursed about $200m each. Prosecutors allege they produced invoices for meals that were never served, ran shell companies, laundered money, indulged in passport fraud and accepted kickbacks.