Inside the white bag decorated with butterflies and flowers were piles of $100, $50 and $20 bills worth a total of $120,000, according to an FBI affidavit.
The 23-year-old woman, a juror, called police immediately after returning home.
Sunday night’s bribery attempt was the latest development in a legal battle involving 70 defendants charged in a massive pandemic fraud scheme that defrauded the government of about $250 million. The Justice Department said a network of individuals and organizations linked to Minnesota-based nonprofits Feeding Our Future and Partners in Quality Care “misused” a federal program meant to feed needy children during the global health crisis, spending the funds on luxury cars, homes, vacations, jewelry and overseas real estate.
Feeding Our Future and Partners in Quality Care did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s requests for comment.
At least two dozen people have been charged in what prosecutors described as a “brazen scheme of staggering scale.” Eighteen people have pleaded guilty. In the past six weeks, a group of seven people were the first to stand trial in the case. They face a total of 41 charges, including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering.
According to court records, the defendants, all of whom had ties to food distributors and pantries that the nonprofit paid with federal funds to provide prepared meals to children, set aside about $41 million for 18 million meals. But prosecutors allege the defendants provided far fewer meals than they reported, and some did not provide any at all. Instead, they allegedly falsified invoices and created lists of fictitious children’s names to divert the funds to personal expenses.
But defense lawyers argued in court that their clients fed thousands of people in need during the coronavirus pandemic and used the funds for necessary business expenses, blaming the nonprofit that oversaw the contractors. During the trial, the defense also tried to discredit government witnesses involved in the scheme and cooperated with investigators in hopes of receiving a lighter sentence.
“Painting with a very broad brush can mask inadequacies,” attorney Patrick Cotter said, according to a Star Tribune report.
On Monday, as the trial was gearing up for closing arguments and deliberations, shock news broke of an alleged attempt to tamper with the jury.
“This is outrageous behavior,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said in court, according to WFLA. “This is the kind of thing that happens in mob movies.”
Lawyer Andrew Birrell told the judge that allegations that jurors were given bags of cash were “disturbing and upsetting accusations,” the station reported.
As a result of the allegations, US District Judge Nancy Brazel ordered all seven defendants detained, and their cell phones were seized and are in the custody of the FBI.
The identity of the woman who allegedly brought the bag to the juror’s home remains unknown. The FBI is currently investigating. Jury tampering and jury tampering are felonies.
“It is highly likely that someone with access to the personal information of the jurors conspired with the woman to provide at least $120,000 in bribes,” FBI agents wrote in the affidavit, adding that the woman knew the jurors’ names (whose identities are known only to the prosecutors, defense attorneys and defense).
Meanwhile, the jury remains sequestered as deliberations continue.
On Tuesday, Judge Brazell announced he had dismissed the second juror and replaced him with a replacement after a 25-year-old woman revealed the bribery details in a phone call with a family member.
According to KARE11, when the woman told her relative that the jury was being sequestered, the relative asked, “Is it because of bribery?”
