MINNEAPOLIS— A jury ended a second day of deliberations Wednesday without reaching a verdict in the trial of seven Minnesotans accused of a scheme to steal more than $40 million from a program intended to feed children during the coronavirus pandemic , as FBI agents try to determine who left a home. bag with you $120,000 cash for a jury member.
Federal authorities seized the defendants’ cellphones to search for clues and took all seven into custody Monday before deliberations began. The judge also seized the jury after dismissing the juror who handed over the gift bag, along with another juror who reported hearing about the attempted bribery.
FBI agents searched the home of one of the defendants on Wednesday, according to a neighbor who witnessed the search and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. The house searched is identified in court documents as the home of Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, described by prosecutors as a leader of the seven.
The neighbor described seeing several FBI agents armed with assault weapons standing outside the house. The officers used a bullhorn to instruct the home’s residents, who came outside and stood in the driveway, the neighbor said.
Minneapolis FBI spokesperson Diana Freedman said in emails to the AP that “the FBI was present in Savage, MN and conducting court-approved law enforcement activities” but that “I cannot provide or confirm any additional information.”
Farah’s attorney, Andrew Birrell, declined to comment when reached by the AP.
According to an FBI agent’s affidavit, a woman rang the doorbell at the home of “Juror No. 52” in the Minneapolis suburb of Spring Lake Park late Sunday, the night before the case went to the jury. The juror was not home, so the woman presented her relative with a gift bag with a curly ribbon and images of flowers and butterflies, saying it was a “gift” for the juror.
“The woman told the family member to tell Juror No. 52 to find him not guilty tomorrow and there would be more of that gift tomorrow,” the officer wrote. “After the woman left, the family member looked inside the gift bag and noticed there was a significant amount of cash inside.”
The juror called the police immediately after she got home and handed them the bag containing stacks of $100, $50 and $20 bills, totaling approximately $120,000.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel and attorneys for both sides heard about the bribery attempt Monday morning, before final closing arguments.
Freedman said the investigation is ongoing and no further information is public. No arrests have been announced.
Anyone involved in the attempted bribery could face federal charges of bribery of a juror and influencing a juror, with a possible maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
WCCO
The seven defendants are the first of 70 to stand trial in what federal prosecutors have called one of the nation’s largest COVID-19-related fraud cases, an elaborate scheme to abuse rules that were kept lax so that the economy during the crisis would not crash. pandemic.
Prosecutors say the seven collectively stole more than $40 million from a program designed to feed children in Minnesota, and that the overall conspiracy siphoned off $250 million in federal funds.
At the center was a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors say only a fraction of the money went to low-income children, while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel and property. Federal authorities say they have recovered about $50 million.
Eighteen other suspects have pleaded guilty. Those awaiting trial include Aimee Bock, the founder of Feeding our Future. She has maintained her innocence, saying she has never stolen and has seen no evidence of fraud among her subcontractors.
These seven suspects 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. Everyone had their own lawyers.
The common thread in their defense is that researchers failed to dig deep enough to see that they were serving real meals to real children.
The food assistance came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was administered by the state, which channeled the meal money through nonprofits and other partners. When the rules were relaxed to expedite aid to the needy, the defendants allegedly raised invoices for meals that were never served, ran shell companies, laundered money, indulged in passport fraud and accepted kickbacks.
An Associated Press analysis published last June documented how thieves across the country looted billions in federal COVID-19 relief dollars. Fraudsters may have stolen more than $280 billion, while another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represented 10% of the $4.3 trillion the government paid out last fall. Nearly 3,200 defendants have been charged and approximately $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic aid has been seized, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
