A juror was dismissed Monday after reporting that a woman dropped a bag of $120,000 in cash at her Minneapolis home. And the woman offered her more money if she would vote to acquit seven people charged with stealing more than $40 million from a program meant to feed children during the pandemic. "This is completely beyond the pale," Assistant US Attorney Joseph Thompson said in court on Monday, per the AP. "This is outrageous behavior. This is stuff that happens in mob movies." 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 Sunday with the message that she'd get another bag of cash if she voted to acquit, according to a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The seven are the first of 70 defendants expected to go to trial in a conspiracy that cost taxpayers $250 million. Eighteen others have pleaded guilty, and authorities said they recovered about $50 million 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. Before allowing the trial to continue with more closing arguments on Monday, US District Judge Nancy Brasel questioned the remaining 17 jurors and alternates, and none reported any unauthorized contact.
The aid money came from the US Department of Agriculture and was administered by the state Department of Education. Nonprofits 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 nonprofits before the pandemic, but in 2021 they disbursed around $200 million each. Prosecutors allege they produced invoices for meals that were never served, ran shell companies, laundered money, indulged in passport fraud, and accepted kickbacks.
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