Juror Offered Bag Of Cash If She Voted To Acquit In Feeding Our Future Trial: Reports

MINNEAPOLIS — A juror was dismissed Monday from the Feeding Our Future trial after a woman came to her home Sunday night with a bag of $120,000 in cash and offered more if she voted to acquit, according to reports.

The juror wasn’t home but her father-in-law took the money, MPR News reported, adding someone at the north metro residence called 911 and local police contacted the FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson referred to the bribe attempt as “outrageous behavior” and “stuff that happens in mob movies,” according to the Star Tribune.

The judge ordered confiscation of the seven defendants’ phones and was to consider whether to detain them, the Tribune reported. The jury, which was expected to begin deliberations Monday, will be sequestered overnight in a hotel, according to MPR News.

The defendants are alleged to have falsified reimbursement requests, stealing $47 million from federal child nutrition programs during the coronavirus pandemic, MPR News reported, adding the case is part of a bigger $250 million scheme.

Charged with wire fraud, money laundering and more, the defendants have ties to Empire Cuisine & Market in Shakopee, according to the Tribune. They are Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Said Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Hayat Mohamed Nur and Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, the Tribune reported.