Federal agents raid 4 Twin Cities homes connected to Feeding Our Future fraud trial
SAVAGE, Minn. — Armed federal agents raided a string of Twin Cities homes on Wednesday in search of who tried to bribe a juror with a gift bag packed with cash.
Kandi Hanson lives across the street in Savage from one of the homes that was raided.
"All of a sudden I hear loud yelling outside," Hanson said. "Scared me. I kind of creep out the window to see what's going on, and here's about five, six undercover police officers and FBI banging on the doors and yelling."
Similar raids were also happening at a second home in Savage, along with houses in Burnsville and Shakopee.
All four raided homes belonging to defendants convicted in the Feeding Our Future fraud trial that wrapped up last week.
Five people were found guilty in the case that involved stealing more than $40 million from a program meant to feed children during the pandemic.
On the trial's last day, someone delivered $120,000 in cash to a juror's home, a presumed bribe attempt. That juror called police and was dismissed from the trial. The FBI is in charge of investigating where that money came from.
"Ransacked everything in the house. They were there for a couple hours," Hanson said. "I didn't expect this out of today. I would've never expected it from [my neighbors]. They're the nicest people in the world. It's just crazy."
Two defendants in the case were acquitted, but there are still 45 more people expected to go on trial for the fraud scheme, which prosecutors say added up to a quarter of a billion dollars.
Eighteen people have already pleaded guilty.