MINNEAPOLIS — Five people were charged on Wednesday with trying to bribe a juror in one of the country’s largest pandemic aid fraud cases with a bag of $120,000 in cash, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI announced Wednesday.
According to an FBI agent's affidavit, a woman rang the doorbell at the home of “Juror #52” in the Minneapolis suburb of Spring Lake Park the night before the case went to the jury. A relative answered the door and was handed a gift bag with a curly ribbon and images of flowers and butterflies. The woman said it was a “present” for the juror.
The juror called police right after she got home and gave them the bag, which held stacks of $100, $50 and $20 bills totaling around $120,000. After the juror reported the bribe attempt, the judge ordered all seven defendants to surrender their cellphones so that investigators could look for evidence. A second juror who was told about the bribe also was dismissed. The FBI investigated the attempted bribe for weeks, raiding the homes of several of the defendants’ homes. A federal judge also ordered all seven taken into custody and sequestered the jury.
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