Fraud trial juror reports getting bag of $120,000 and promise of more if she’ll acquit
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A juror was dismissed from a multimillion-dollar fraud trial on Monday after reporting that a woman dropped a bag of $120,000 cash at her home over the weekend. She said the woman told her relative that she would get still more money if she voted to acquit seven people charged with stealing more than $40 million from a program meant to feed children during the pandemic. These seven are the first of 70 defendants expected to be tried in a conspiracy that cost taxpayers $250 million. It’s one of the nation’s largest pandemic-related fraud cases. Prosecutor Joseph Thompson said the bag of cash seems like “stuff that happens in mob movies.”