Plot twist... There was £250k in the bag when it was dropped off.
this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2024
511 points (99.2% liked)
News
23664 readers
3564 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I don’t see why she couldn’t take the money and get off the jury. It’s not like the briber is entitled to illegal money. At that point she could just make sure the money ends up where it needs to go.
I guess the fear of people with those resources coming after you.
How would she give it back tho?
That’s the implication.
She was already paid by people with the resources to do the thing, they gave her the money (whether she agreed to it or not or had any knowledge).
She can’t give it back. How could she? Handing it to the authorities sends the message she didn’t keep the payment.
If someone gave you that much money and said do this thing (commit a crime to protect other criminals) it would probably be super intimidating generally. What do you do?
I don't know. I saw similar situations recently in the Narcos series on Netflix. Innocent people were placed into situations in which they had to either (a) break the law for considerable compensation or (b) not break the law and suffer horrible consequences. I guess in that situation, the best you can do is to pack up as soon as possible and hide somewhere. There's really nothing else. If someone has the financial means and audacity to bribe a juror with $120k over a case with 70 defendants defrauding $250 million from the government, they likely have the means to order a hit on you and your family. It's a terrible situation to be in, and I would love to know how this has been handled in the past, how they are going to handle it now, and what the outcome will be.
There's no indication that this group attempting to bribe her are violent, and there was no explicit or implied violent "or else" threat, at least none mentioned in the AP and Star Tribune articles.
that's true. I might be hyper- vigilant or reactive to those kinds of things.
I think the act itself implies the threat. If they have those resources and are willing to brazenly break the law like that no actual threat is needed.
Even if they aren't violent and have no intention of being so the implication is there.
Because that money belongs to someone, presumably the party that was defrauded.
Since she dropped the money off with the police, the person who owns the money can come and claim it.
If nobody claims it within a certain period of time, then the money is officially hers to keep.
If someone does come and claim it, then they will probably get in a lot of legal trouble.
i.e. The money's about as good as the former juror's. She just needs to wait.
That's lost and found, this is criminal evidence. Police departments are very good at finding ways to keep money given to them. ;)
Good point!
She ain't getting that money back lol.
Source?
It’s needed as evidence in the attempting to bribe a juror case.
Because receiving a bribe is a crime, regardless of whether you do what you’re being bribed to do.
"I swear I only accepted it with every intention of giving it to kids who need food"
The cops put all $60k in the evidence vault
This is outrageous, allright. You steal 40 mil from the kids and try to bribe me with 120k? Go straight to prison!
America has become such a shit show that a common moral act is seen as heroism.
Coming forward about this IS heroism. That juror is in mortal danger. I am in no way exaggerating, anyone who would do this would kill to keep secrets.
She's in less danger now that she's off the case and has already told everything she knows. Killing her might send a message to other jurors to shut up and keep their money but they could just as well assume they would be killed after the trial to leave no witnesses. So it doesn't really work. It would add to her credibility and more charges against them.
So she's only in a little bit of mortal danger? That's still more than all the rest of us. Hero.
Oh she's definitely a hero. Plus she got out of jury duty!
Not sure why they dismissed the juror. She was probably the only honest one who reported it. Give her a pat on the back and let her stay on, then grill the other jurors.
She just moved from juror to witness.
Dropped it off at her home, meaning the situation could plausibly go from bribery to extortion/threats
It's because the juror is now a target for extortion/threats/etc... She's vulnerable.
Also, the fact that they gave this money can prejudice her into making a judgment not based on the facts of the case itself.
It's best if she's moved off the jury and becomes a witness instead. It ensures a fair trial.
120k is insulting.
If you steal 40mil, you’re staring down the barrel of losing 40mil plus your freedom.
Just breaking even (losing the 40mil) but keeping your freedom would be an amazing deal for you, but what’s your freedom worth?
I figure the overall payment has got to be something like 50mil to be fair. With at least a 5% down payment to show you’re serious, that’s 2.5mil.
"Promise of more". Potentially amongst many jurors. In theory it's not just $120k.
Your reasoning is solid, but I’m not sure I’d trust someone who steals and bribes to honour their word.
Shit like this is why I always demand full payment up front. It’s just a shame I have no influence to garner bribes.
Another swing of the pick-axe to chip away at judicial reliability and faith in institutions.
This is America.
This is the modern day world. That shit happens in a lot of countries (mostly in developing countries), including mine.
The numbers of convicted related to COVID money in my country are almost reached a thousand, including some top government officials (and surprise, their relatives too).
I’m glad to hear it, even if it’s sad it happens in the first place. Just can’t let people get away with it.
Buch of trump witnesses got cushy jobs and pay bumps too.
while the rest was spent on luxury cars, jewelry, travel and property.
funny how it's almost laughable to think about stealing a luxury car, with its GPS tracking, remote shut-off, spy cameras, etc. yet it's equally laughablly easy to steal millions of dollars from the government in order to buy those cars
Did the bag have $$ signs on them?
She should get to keep it.
During the trial that began in April, defense attorneys questioned the quality of the FBI’s investigation and suggested that this might be more of a case of record-keeping problems than fraud as these defendants sought to keep up with rapidly changing rules for the food aid program.
The fact that they misplaced over $100k makes the whole case for them. They're obviously clumsy as shit at accounting. Not guilty!