(Rightallegiance.com) – In a shocking turn of events, federal agents have searched the Minnesota home of at least one of the seven defendants involved in a high-profile fraud trial. This comes just days after a juror reported that someone attempted to bribe them with nearly $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal.
The FBI has stated that they conducted “court authorized law enforcement activity” on Wednesday in Savage, Minnesota, where at least three of the defendants have purchased homes in the last few years.The seven defendants are facing serious accusations of misusing millions of dollars meant to feed children during the pandemic.
The federal fraud trial, which began on April 22, is the first in an alleged $250 million Covid relief scheme that prosecutors claim is the largest of its kind. As the trial came closer to deliberations on Sunday night, a juror reported that a woman delivered a gift bag full of cash and left it with a relative, according to an FBI search warrant affidavit.
The jurors’ names have not been made public, but the visitor knew the woman’s first name and told her relative that there would “be more of that present tomorrow” if the juror agreed to vote not guilty, as stated in the affidavit.
Following the alleged bribe attempt, the juror was dismissed after reporting the incident to the court and police. A second juror was also released on Tuesday after a family member brought up the alleged bribe in a conversation. It remains unclear who offered the jurbe to the juror, but it is known that all of the defendants, their attorneys, and the prosecutors had access to that juror’s identifying information, according to officials.
In a recent detention order filed on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel stated that it is “likely” that at least one defendant was involved in the bribe attempt. “As the Court sees it, it is more than possible that one of the seven defendants on trial played a role in bribing a juror,” Brasel wrote. The judge emphasized the importance of maintaining the sanctity of the jury system and the severity of the consequences for bribing a juror, which is a felony and comes with a substantial term of imprisonment, including a 20-year statutory maximum in certain cases.
As a result, Judge Brasel ordered the defendants to surrender their cellphones, and all seven were taken into custody. However, it is still unclear who was targeted in the FBI’s activity on Wednesday and what it may have yielded. Several search warrants were listed in the U.S. District of Minnesota on Wednesday, but none were publicly accessible.
The FBI stated that the investigation is ongoing and declined to provide or confirm more information. Similarly, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota also declined to comment.As the sequestered jury continues to deliberate the fate of the defendants, the accused individuals are Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, and Hayat Mohamed Nur.
The defendants are facing felony charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, federal programs bribery, and money laundering. Steve Schleicher, an attorney representing Said Shafii Farah, declined to comment. None of the attorneys listed for the other six defendants responded to requests for comment.
The fraud scheme in question took place from April 2020 to January 2022, during which the defendants collectively received over $40 million in Federal Child Nutrition Program funds. These funds were intended to provide free, nutritious meals to children and low-income families. While the defendants claimed to have fed millions of children with those funds, prosecutors argue that they used most of the money to buy multiple homes, properties, and luxury vehicles.
The defendants are among 70 people charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota in this massive fraud scheme involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Eighteen have already pleaded guilty, officials said. Feeding Our Future was a sponsor participating in the Federal Child Nutrition Program, and its employees recruited people and entities to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites throughout Minnesota. The nonprofit went from receiving and disbursing about $3.4 million in federal funds in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021, according to prosecutors.