The judge presiding over the second Feeding Our Future trial is implementing new jury security measures after a juror at the first trial was the target of a bribery attempt.
Jury selection starts Feb. 3 in the trial of Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and her co-defendants Salim Ahmed Said, Abdi Nur Salah and his brother Abdulkadir Nur Salah.
During a pretrial hearing on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel said the defendants may view paper copies of juror questionnaires and take notes on them but must hand over any notes to their attorneys before leaving the courthouse. Prosecutors have not sought pretrial detention in the fraud case.
Jurors’ names are not public. But several defendants in the first trial allegedly copied the list, then recruited a friend to follow one juror to her home and drop off a Hallmark gift bag with $120,000 in cash. The juror called 911 to report the bribery attempt, and Brasel replaced her with an alternate.
Brasel is also requiring the defendants to put their phones in security pouches while court is in session.
The four are charged in an alleged $250 million scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs by falsely claiming reimbursement for millions of meals that they never served to children in need. Federal prosecutors say that during the pandemic, Bock and her now-defunct nonprofit recruited others to open more than 200 meal distribution sites around Minnesota.
In June, prosecutors charged five people with jury bribery, including three of the defendants from the first trial. One defendant, Said Farah, had been acquitted of the underlying fraud charges.
Abdimajid Nur, who was convicted of wire fraud and money laundering at the trial, pleaded guilty in June to jury bribery. Nur admitted that he researched information about the juror online and recruited Ladan Ali of Seattle to deliver the cash. Ali pleaded guilty in September.
Also last June the Office of the Legislative Auditor released a report on the matter, finding that “inadequate oversight” by officials with the state Department of Education helped create the opportunity for the fraud. The auditor’s office said it found numerous instances when state officials failed to properly monitor federal dollars, “especially given information it either had in its possession or should have obtained but did not.”
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