5 of 7 Minnesotans found guilty in Feeding our Future fraud case

this is breaking news from WCCO news hi there I'm Aaron Hansa we have some breaking news right now into the WCCO Newsroom a jury has reached a verdict in the feeding our future fraud trial so moments ago the jury found most of these defendants guilty on most of the charges they faced with a couple exceptions here so s Farah and Abdu wahab afin were found not guilty of all charges those included things like wire fraud bribery and money laundering those were some of the charges that these defendants were facing now these verdicts come after 4 days of deliberations federal authorities have called this part of the largest pandemic fraud in the United States and they say that this entire fraud scheme diverted $250 million in federal funds that were meant to feed children during the pandemic now seven motans were accused of swindling more than $40 million out of that 250 million total that is what the s defendants were on trial for uh in the recent weeks and this 4 days of uh deliberations we're just hearing about now so prosecutors say that they took money from a program that was again designed to feed children during the pandemic the case was interrupted you'll remember when a juror had to be dismissed that's after someone reported that someone tried to bribe her to acquit these defendants by placing $120,000 in cash on her front steps that's what you're looking at there now these were seven local defendants that were charged in the fraud case prosecutors had accused them of spending this stolen money on things like luxury cars jewelry travel and properties and that just a fraction of this actually went to feed lowincome children the whole point of the program and this covid money and covid funding uh so again s Farah and Abdu wahab afin were found not guilty of all charges today as uh jurors came back with their verdict we have Jonah Kaplan reporting he's been covering the story for us uh he was in the courtroom today and he's going to break down these verdicts and and what it means later in our coverage so stick with us we have much more coming up on the four today and then more on our evening news at 5 and6 on WCCO and streaming right here on CBS News Minnesota

Channel: WCCO - CBS Minnesota

Views: 24,989

Keywords: WCCO 4 News, feeding our future, verdit, most found guilty, swindle, wire fraud, minneapolis

Id: Z9M6Bkbe1aQ

Length: 2min 16sec (136 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2024