We know what’s coming and we are prepared.
A jury found five defendants guilty and two not guilty on Friday in the first trial in the nation's largest pandemic relief fraud case.
They faced a total of 41 charges — chiefly wire fraud, bribery and money laundering - alleging they claimed to give away 18.8 million meals to needy children from 50 sites across the state.
Prosecutors said they fabricated invoices and submitted thousands of phony names of children in order to get $49 million in federal funds.
Said Shafii Farah and Abdiwahab Maalim Aftin were acquitted of all charges against them, while the others had a mix of convictions and acquittals.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson held a brief press conference and said, "We're pleased with the verdict. We're proud of the trial."
He said the outcome confirms what the feds knew all along: That members of the group falsified documents, lied and claimed to be serving millions of meals, taking advantage of a global pandemic to defraud the public and steal millions of dollars.
"This conduct was not just criminal, it was depraved and brazen," Thompson said. "Evidence showed how brazen the scheme was, and how
The verdict came at the end of a chaotic week, when the first day of jury deliberations was marked by chaos Monday, as federal prosecutors revealed that someone left $120,000 at the home of a juror Sunday night in an effort to sway her vote. The juror - and another juror who became aware of the bribe attempt - were dismissed, while the remaining jurors were sequestered and the defendants detained for the remainder of deliberations.
The home of one of the defendants, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, whom prosecutors have described as a ringleader, was raided Wednesday in connection with the bribe investigation.
The defendants are the first to stand trial out of 70 people charged so far in what's been dubbed the Feeding Our Future case - named for a nonprofit at the center of the scheme — and which revolves around a web of people who federal prosecutors say stole some $250 million.
Eighteen people have pleaded guilty and one fled the country.
The verdict is sure to affect the 44 others awaiting trial. More could still be charged, especially if the guilty verdicts unleash a wave of cooperation with the investigation, as defendants and suspects seek lighter sentences. The two acquittals may give some the confidence to go to trial.
⚖️ 🇺🇸 🏛 He Who Decides the Exception: Trump Should Disregard the Supreme Court’s National Guard Ruling
⬛️ Judicial overreach mustn’t be permitted to trample the public necessity.
🔶️ The Supreme Court has again reminded the country that, in the American system, the judiciary can halt executive action with the stroke of a pen—this time keeping in place a lower-court order blocking President Trump’s attempt to federalize and deploy National Guard forces to protect besieged immigration enforcement operations in and around Chicago.
🔶️ The point was that a republic cannot outsource its highest political judgments to a tribunal without hollowing out self-government. Put those threads together—Cicero’s salus populi, Aquinas’ equity, Locke’s prerogative, Hamilton’s executive energy, Jefferson’s coordinate construction, Jackson’s independence, Lincoln’s warning—and you get a tradition that modern progressives and libertarians alike often deny ...
This is no longer a red-versus-blue spectator sport or partisan cheerleading exercise. The macro reality is brutally apolitical. The United States is functionally bankrupt, as Ron Paul has warned for decades, and the evidence is now manifesting in collapsing purchasing power. The price of acquiring real money—gold and silver—has surged roughly 200% in just two years, a silent tax that represents systemic looting via monetary debasement. We are drifting toward a sovereign debt crisis unprecedented in the entire history of fiat currency regimes. Even conservative frameworks, like Jim Rickards’ back-of-the-napkin gold revaluation tied to balance-sheet realities, imply a potential trajectory toward $27,000 per ounce. You don’t need to be a “gold bug” to recognize risk management: allocating even 10% of depreciating Federal Reserve notes into real money is simple capital preservation. It’s not about upside speculation—it’s about avoiding total annihilation if real money ...
