Two jurors in $40 million fraud case dismissed after one offered $120,000 bribe in exchange for not guilty verdict

A second Minnesota juror has been replaced as the panel weighs the fate of seven people accused of misusing millions of dollars in federal funds intended to feed children during the pandemic, in what prosecutors say is part of the largest fraud scheme of its kind in the country. .

The two jurors were replaced by alternates.

The juror was dismissed Tuesday after a family member asked him if he was being held captive because another juror was allegedly offered a nearly $120,000 cash bribe to the weekend course. That juror was not home Sunday night, the day before deliberations, when a woman delivered a gift bag filled with cash and left it with a relative, according to an FBI search warrant affidavit.

The visitor knew the juror's first name and told someone close to the juror that there would be “more gifts tomorrow” if the juror agreed to find the defendants not guilty, the affidavit said. The juror reported the incident to the police.

The FBI said all seven defendants, their attorneys and prosecutors had access to that juror's identifying information. The FBI conducted a search of the defendants' cell phones.

The alleged bribe took place as the trial was winding down. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota has charged 70 people in connection with a massive $250 million fraud scheme involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Eighteen of them pleaded guilty, authorities said.

Feeding Our Future was a participating sponsor of the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Prosecutors said the nonprofit's employees recruited people and entities to open Federal Child Nutrition Program sites throughout Minnesota as part of the alleged fraud scheme. Feeding Our Future went from receiving and disbursing about $3.4 million in federal funds in 2019 to nearly $200 million in 2021, prosecutors said.

The trial against the first group of defendants began on April 22. They are Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff and Hayat Mohamed Nur.

Prosecutors say the defendants received more than $40 million from the federal program, which they spent on personal luxury goods — including several homes and luxury properties and vehicles — from April 2020 to January 2022, according to a complaint criminal.

The program aimed to provide free, nutritious meals to low-income children and families in need. While the defendants claimed to have fed millions of children, prosecutors said they instead used the money to purchase several real estate properties and cars, the complaint states.

All seven defendants face charges of criminal conspiracy, wire fraud, federal program bribery and money laundering. They all pleaded not guilty.

“This was a brazen scheme of staggering proportions,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said in a September 2022 statement when prosecutors first announced the federal criminal charges. “These defendants exploited a program designed to provide nutritious food to children in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, they prioritized their own greed.

Regarding the alleged juror bribery incident, Frederick Goetz, an attorney representing Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff, told NBC News that his client “had absolutely no part in it.” None of the attorneys for the other six defendants responded to requests for comment Tuesday.