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Daniel O'Riordan's avatar

It's surprising how fast a judge can act on alleged acts of corruption when no one's really concerned about not making the defendants uncomfortable.

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Zyxomma's avatar

Ta, Robyn. I loathe and detest thieves on general principle, but thieves who steal money meant to feed hungry kids are lower than crocodile piss.

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Wookiee Monster's avatar

Incidentally, this is why Trump wasn’t allowed to know any personal information about his jurors.

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marydn's avatar

"while the defense teams argued that they were taking on risk, often by providing the meals before getting the money, and therefore should have reasonably expected to turn a profit."

It always amazes me what some people think is a "reasonable profit". It is part of the reason groceries, rent and healthcare (and everything else) are so high in this country. Don't be so fucking greedy, assholes.

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rawrtigerlily's avatar

This makes me so angry. There are so many states that aren't even *trying* to set up programs to help people, but even in ones that are, to have schemers massively abuse and defraud the systems is just so disheartening.

There are people out there who would have jumped at the chance to make a decent living doing this necessary work, but instead we got a bunch of grifting assholes.

Stop making it so fucking hard for any of us to have nice things. k. pls. thx.

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Alternative Dog's avatar

Glad to hear that some criminals are being prosecuted but $250 million is barely a drop in an Olympic sized pool. A conservative estimate is over $400 billion nation wide. That total has gone up since this analysis from a year ago:

𝘈𝘯 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 $280 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘖𝘝𝘐𝘋-19 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨; 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 $123 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 10% 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 $4.2 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜.𝘚. 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘖𝘝𝘐𝘋 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘢𝘪𝘥.

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Bel-Ami's avatar

Good. Now let's see the fraud investigators go after the CEOs who took the money that was supposed to keep workers on the payroll, then fired said workers and pocketed the money.

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Owlftr13's avatar

Don't think Minnesotans will take kindly to this kind of monkey business.

I guess it's better than refusing the money and telling poor kids to get fucked. (talking to you, Huckabeast).

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kmblue187's avatar

Wow, way to report it, Miss Juror.

And way to respond, your Honor.

The defendants are lower than low, but I can't figure out who gets the Best Scumbag Award - people who stole money from hungry children OR

Trump for stalling on revealing the existence of the Covid virus because he was afraid it might hurt his re-election chances. Scratch that, Trump wins.

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Muddie Mae Suggins's avatar

This whole story is insane and locally (here in MN) Sahan Journal has done a terrific job reporting on it. https://sahanjournal.com/

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James Baskin's avatar

What are the chances of clawing some of it back?

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Bagels of Doom's avatar

"Following the attempted bribe, US District Judge Nancy Brasel immediately dismissed the juror, ordered the defendants detained, and confiscated the phones of the rest of the 17 jurors and alternates to make sure that none of them had been the recipient of any festive gift bags in recent days. She also ordered them to be sequestered until the end of deliberations."

and this is how you get a sequestered jury. huffing and puffing in the general direction of the judge just makes you look pathetic.

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Bitter Scribe's avatar

For those who hyperventilate about refugees/immigrants in general, and Somalis in particular:

How interesting that this alleged ripoff occurred during the Trump Administration and is being prosecuted under Biden.

I'd be interested in whether this bribe becomes part of the case against the defendants. Seems like pretty clear evidence of guilt -- at least, if it can be tied to them.

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Bagels of Doom's avatar

I would also tell these people that it's kind of weirdly patronizing to assume that people from East Africa for some reason are incapable of committing fraud.

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Sharon Thomas's avatar

Nancy Brasel sounds like the kind of judge Trump should have.

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Worriedman's avatar

I'll be honest, I'd grab a great big handful of the cash before I did the right thing and turned it in.

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Notorious J.I.M.'s avatar

After looking at how sequential the bills were.

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NorfolkAndWay's avatar

"Wait a minute, we gave you $150,000! ... or, so I've been told.."

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