Juror in charity fraud trial reveals she was given bag of $120k cash to acquit defendants

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A juror in the Feeding Our Future trial was dismissed on Monday after reporting a blatant bribery attempt to try and get her to vote to acquit seven people charged with stealing more than $40m from a government program intended to feed children during the pandemic.

The 23-year-old juror wasn’t at her home in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota, on Sunday night when a woman showed up at her home with a bag of $120,000 in cash and the promise of more money if she voted to acquit, Assistant US Attorney Joe Thompson said.

The woman left the message and the bag of cash with the juror’s father-in-law saying, “This is for Juror 52”, according to a report in the Sahan Journal.

The juror reported the bribery attempt to the local police.

“This is completely beyond the pale,” Thompson told Judge Nancy Brasel for the US District Court in Minnesota. “This is outrageous behavior. This is stuff that happens in mob movies.”

Thompson asked Judge Brasel to detain the defendants, but the judge declined to do so, saying she would decide at a later time. She had the defendant’s phones confiscated by an FBI agent.

The revelation arrives at the tail end of the high-profile trial in which seven defendants are accused of taking more than $40m from a government program that was meant to feed children during the pandemic.

Prosecutors allege that the group, mostly affiliated with Empire Cuisine and Market – a Shakopee grocery store and deli, took advantage of looser requirements implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic to allow for-profit restaurants to participate in the Federal Child Nutrition Program to steal millions of dollars.

According to prosecutors, the group claimed to serve nonexistent meals to nonexistent children. They then used the money to buy luxury cars, vacations, homes, jewelry and more.

The trial is part of a much larger federal indictment that charged 70 people with stealing $250m from the Children Nutrition Program. So far, 18 people have pled guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Closing arguments in the trial were expected to begin this week.

After dismissing the juror, Judge Brasel asked other jurors if they had been contacted, but all said no, according to the Star Tribune.