US charity fraud trial disrupted by $120,000 jury bribe

A trial over one of America’s largest pandemic-fraud schemes has taken a mysterious turn following an alleged attempt to bribe one of the jurors.

The juror was dismissed after she claimed that a woman dressed in black visited her home and offered her a bag filled with $120,000 (£93,770) in cash. In return, she was to vote to acquit the seven defendants.

The juror was part of a trial that centres on the alleged theft of more than $40m from a taxpayer-supported food aid program for children.

All of the defendants were arrested after the juror revealed the alleged bribery scheme to the court.

“This is stuff that happens in mob movies,” Assistant US Attorney Joseph Thompson, a government prosecutor, told the court as he requested the arrests.

“Let’s be honest, it wasn’t someone outside of this room.”

The bribe occurred as the jurors were set to begin deliberating after one week of jury selection and five weeks of witness testimony.

Bribing a juror is a felony that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. The seven people currently on trial – six men and one woman – already face a total of 41 charges including wire fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors have argued the defendants – all of whom are Somali immigrants to Minnesota – operated their charity as a front to receive funds from the federal Child Nutrition Program.

Providing fake names of non-existent children they were claiming to feed and creating a fraudulent paper trail of how those numbers skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic, the men allegedly pocketed millions of dollars.

Jurors were shown evidence of how this money was allegedly spent: on Porsche and Tesla convertibles, a luxury vacation in Dubai, real estate purchases in Kenya, among other things.

The joint defence has cast doubt on the FBI’s sprawling investigation as well as on the credibility of the prosecution’s star witness.

But six of the seven defence attorneys rested their case without calling any witnesses, while the seventh defendant took the stand himself.

With closing arguments due to wrap, Mr Thompson disclosed the episode of attempted jury tampering that had taken place on Sunday night.

He said a woman had dropped off a gift bag filled with wads of cash at the juror’s home.

“This is for Juror 52,” the woman allegedly said. “Tell her there will be another bag for her if she votes to acquit.”

Jurors in the case have not been publicly identified, as is common practice, but attorneys and defendants briefly viewed their names and addresses at the start of the trial.

Juror 52 is a 23-year-old woman who, according to the Sahan Journal, was the only person of colour on the panel.

“This can’t be allowed,” Mr Thompson said. “This strikes at the integrity of our system.”

An FBI affidavit describes a black woman, “possibly Somali, with an accent, wearing a long black dress”, approaching Juror 52’s home in a Mazda.

The juror was not at home but her father-in-law reportedly answered the door, collecting the white bag packed with $20, $50 and $100 bills.

Juror 52 immediately reported the incident to local police and turned over the money to the FBI. She was excused from the jury on Monday.

US District Judge Nancy Brasel agreed with prosecutors that “someone obviously has the addresses of the families of these jurors”, ordering the detention of all seven defendants.

The court later granted a search warrant that led to the confiscation of cell phones belonging to the defendants.

The men were escorted from the court in handcuffs, some openly weeping and embracing their family members before they were led out.

Judge Brasel questioned all the remaining jurors to determine whether they had experienced something similar.

In a rare move, she also “reluctantly” sequestered the jury for the remainder of the trial, removing them from all outside contact and barring their use of electronic devices until the trial has finished.

Monday’s twist was the latest in an investigation that has seen prosecutors indict 70 people. Eighteen defendants have so far pleaded guilty and the government has recovered about $60m of the stolen funds.