MINNEAPOLIS – A jury reached a verdict Friday in the case against seven Minnesota residents accused in a scheme to steal more than $40 million that was supposed to feed children during the pandemic. The case received widespread attention after someone tried to bribe a juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel dismissed that juror before deliberations began, as well as another juror who was informed about the bribery attempt. An FBI investigation into the bribery attempt continues, with no arrests announced.
Defense attorneys argued that the defendants provided real meals to real people.
Jurors, prosecutors and defendants gathered in the courtroom to hear the verdicts read before Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, who replaced Brasel because she was traveling on Friday.
The seven defendants are the first of 70 to be tried in what federal prosecutors called one of the nation’s largest COVID-19-related frauds, exploiting rules that were kept lax so the economy wouldn’t crash during the pandemic. More than $250 million in federal funds were withdrawn from Minnesota’s overall scheme, of which only about $50 million was recovered, officials said.
One Associated Press analysis published last June documented how thieves across the country looted billions in federal COVID-19 relief dollars. Fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion, while another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represented 10% of the US$4.3 trillion the government disbursed last fall. Nearly 3,200 defendants have been charged and about $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic aid has been seized, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Minnesota case gained attention after the judge and lawyers on both sides learned of the bribery attempt. The judge ordered all seven defendants to hand over their cellphones so investigators could look for evidence. She also ordered all seven taken into custody and sequestered the jury.
According to an FBI agent’s testimony, a woman rang the doorbell at the home of “Juror #52” in the Minneapolis suburb of Spring Lake Park the night before the case was due to go to the jury. The juror was not home, but a relative answered the door. The woman handed the relative a gift bag with curly ribbon and images of flowers and butterflies and said it was a “gift” for the juror.
“The woman told the relative to tell Juror #52 to plead not guilty tomorrow and there would be more of that present tomorrow,” the agent wrote. “After the woman left, the relative looked in the gift bag and saw that it contained a substantial amount of money.”
The juror called police shortly after arriving home and handed them the bag, which contained stacks of $100, $50 and $20 bills totaling about $120,000. The woman who dropped off the bag knew the juror’s first name, the agent said. The jurors’ names were not released, but the list of people with access to them included prosecutors, defense attorneys — and the seven defendants.
“It is highly likely that someone with access to the juror’s personal information was conspiring, at a minimum, with the woman who handed over the $120,000 bribe,” the FBI agent wrote, noting that the alleged fraudulent conspiracy at the center of the trial involved electronic devices. communications, including text messages and emails.
Federal charges of bribing a juror and influencing a juror carry a potential maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Food aid came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was administered by the state, which funneled meal money through nonprofits and other partners. As rules were relaxed to speed up support for those in need, the defendants allegedly presented bills for meals never served, ran shell companies, laundered money, indulged in passport fraud and accepted bribes.
Federal prosecutors said only a fraction of the money the defendants received through the nonprofit Feeding our Future went to feed low-income children, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel and property. The seven collectively stole more than $40 million, they said.
These seven defendants are: Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff and Hayat Mohamed Nur. All were charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering, and some faced additional charges in the 43-count indictment. Each had their own lawyers.
The common thread in their defenses was that investigators failed to dig deep enough to see that they served real meals to real children.
Eighteen other defendants pleaded guilty. Among those awaiting trial is Aimee Bock, the founder to Feed our Future. She maintained her innocence, saying she never stole and saw no evidence of fraud among her subcontractors.
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