Woman allegedly attempts to bribe juror on COVID fraud case with $120K — all 7 defendants arrested



A juror on a case of alleged COVID fraud in Minneapolis has been dismissed and all seven defendants arrested after a woman allegedly dropped off a bag full of cash in hopes of securing an acquittal.

Just before 9 p.m. on Sunday, a woman who appeared to be Somali, wearing a long dress and who spoke with an accent, rang the doorbell at the home of a 23-year-old woman impaneled on a jury for one of the largest COVID-funding fraud cases in the nation.

An inspection of the defendants' phones revealed that all 'have had access' to information that would have identified Juror 52.

The case involves seven defendants of East African descent accused of buying expensive property, jewelry, cars, and other luxury items with $41 million allocated to Feeding Our Future, an organization entrusted with providing food for underprivileged children. The case is part of a larger case involving 70 total defendants and $250 million in allegedly stolen funds. So far, 18 defendants have pled guilty, and $50 million has been recovered, the AP reported.

The Somali woman who arrived at the juror's home spoke with the juror's father-in-law and allegedly handed him a decorative bag filled with rolled up bills totaling $120,000. The woman even allegedly referred to the juror by her first name.

"This is for Juror 52," a note accompanying the bag allegedly said. "Tell her there will be another bag for her if she votes to acquit."

Juror 52 was not home at the time. When she returned, her father-in-law explained the situation, and the juror immediately called 911. The bag full of cash is now in the custody of the FBI.

"It is highly likely that someone with access to the juror’s personal information was conspiring with, at minimum, the woman who delivered the $120,000 bribe," read an affidavit.

In the courtroom on Monday morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson explained the incident of alleged jury tampering without the jury present. "This is outrageous behavior. This is the stuff that happens in mob movies," he said. "It really strikes at the heart of this case."

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel was similarly concerned. She ordered the defendants' phones to be seized and the jury to be sequestered. "I don’t do it lightly, but I want to ensure a fair trial," she said.

Brasel also dismissed Juror 52 — described by the Sahan Journal as perhaps "the person of color on the jury" — and questioned the other jurors and alternates, asking them individually whether they had received similar attempted bribes. All replied in the negative.

Confident that the trial could proceed, Brasel then authorized the defense teams to make their closing arguments, which were followed by a rebuttal from the prosecution. The case was then given to the jury for deliberation.

Until Monday, the seven defendants — Abdiwahab Aftin, Abdiaziz Farah, Said Farah, Mohamed Jama Ismail, Abdimajid Nur, Hayat Nur, and Mukhtar Shariff — had been released on their own recognizance. But following the alleged bribe, Brasel overruled the objections of defense attorneys and had all the defendants rearrested. They will be kept in custody until the jury has reached a verdict.

An inspection of the defendants' phones revealed that all "have had access" to information that would have identified Juror 52, according to a search warrant affidavit.

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'Historic levels of fraud': US government admits scam artists stole $45.6 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits, feds say dead people exploited



A federal watchdog estimates that fraudsters stole $45.6 billion in unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The historic level of fraud is triple the amount that the U.S. government previously estimated. Some of the scam artists exploited dead people to file illegitimate unemployment claims, while others were fraud schemes carried out by street gangs.

In June 2021, the inspector general for the U.S. Labor Department "identified more than $16 billion in potentially fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) pandemic benefits paid in four specific high-risk areas" since March 2020. On Thursday, the inspector general for the Department of Labor revealed that an additional $29.6 billion in fraudulent unemployment benefits were paid during the pandemic.

The inspector general listed the high-risk areas as multistate claims, suspicious emails, federal prisoners, and deceased persons. Of the $45.6 billion in fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits, nearly $29 billion was from multistate claims, over $16 billion from suspicious emails, $267 million stolen by federal prisoners, and nearly $140 million taken by people posing as dead people.

"We determined 205,766 Social Security numbers of deceased persons were used to file claims for UI pandemic benefits," the report stated.

More than 1.7 million Social Security numbers were associated with suspicious email accounts that were suspected of stealing $16.2 billion in unemployment benefits during the pandemic.

In the five months after March 2020, over 57 million people filed claims with the unemployment insurance program.

"As the DOL-OIG reported, states struggled to handle the substantial increase in the volume of UI claims and to determine that benefits were paid to the right person in the correct amount," said the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General.

From March 2020 until July 2021, U.S. federal and state governments paid out roughly $794 billion in unemployment benefits, according to the Department of Labor.

The DOL-OIG stated that it is focusing on "large-scale identity theft schemes involving multiple victims and organized criminal groups, including street gangs."

In one case, 11 members of a gang were charged with allegedly obtaining $4.3 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits. The gang members are suspected of using the identification of "more than 800 victims to submit nearly 1,000 claims for UI benefits."

Investigations by the DOL-OIG resulted in more than 1,000 people being charged with unemployment insurance fraud since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This milestone of 1,000 individuals being charged with crimes involving UI fraud and the identification of $45.6 billion in potentially fraudulent UI payments highlights the magnitude of this problem," inspector general Larry D. Turner said in a statement released on Thursday. "Hundreds of billions in pandemic funds attracted fraudsters seeking to exploit the UI program—resulting in historic levels of fraud and other improper payments."

Since the pandemic began, there have only been 400 convictions of unemployment insurance fraud.

In March, the Department of Justice announced in a press release that 1,000 people have been hit with criminal charges for pandemic-related fraud schemes involving unemployment insurance, the Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, and COVID-19 health care fraud. The 1,000 defendants are suspected of $1.1 billion in losses and pandemic relief loans totaling more than $6 billion.

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