MINNEAPOLIS — Five people have been indicted for their alleged roles in the $120,000 bribery attempt of a juror during the Feeding Our Future fraud trial earlier this month.
During the trial, a juror was dismissed after reporting that a woman dropped a bag of cash at her home and offered her more money if she would vote to acquit seven people charged with stealing more than $40 million from a program meant to feed children during the pandemic. The overall scheme is estimated to have diverted $250 million in federal funds in what officials call the “largest pandemic fraud in the United States.”
U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger called the bribery attempt a “chilling attack on our justice system,” and said it was fortunate that “juror 52 could not be bought.”
According to the justice department, the five defendants targeted the 23-year-old juror because she was the youngest, and because they believed her to be the only juror of color.
The five charged — Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdulkarim Shafii Farah and Ladan Mohamed Ali — found the juror’s information online, including her home address.
Luger said that Nur, who was one of the defendants in the Feeding Our Future trial, recruited Ali to carry out the scheme. Ali flew in from Seattle on May 30, and the next day followed the juror home from downtown Minneapolis after the first day of closing arguments.
Abdiaziz Farah instructed Nur to meet him at Said Farah’s business to pick up the $200,000 in bribe money. Nur then met with Ali and gave her the money, the justice department said.
On the evening of June 2, Abdulkarim Farah drove Ali to the juror’s house, where she handed a gift bag containing $120,000 in cash to the juror’s relative. She promised there would be more money if the juror voted to acquit all the defendants. Abdulkarim Farah took a video of Ali dropping off the money and sent it to his co-conspirators, officials say.
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The conspirators had also drafted a list of instructions for the juror, Luger said. Her job would be to “convince all the remaining jurors to mark NOT GUILTY for all defendants and all counts.” They also compiled a list of “arguments to convince other jurors,” many of which were designed to convince the jurors that the prosecution was motivated by racism.
One of the conspirators “purchased a GPS tracking device to covertly install” on the juror’s car “in order to track her movements,” Luger’s department said.
Abdiaziz Farah wiped his phone after the judge ordered it to be surrendered to law enforcement. Nur and Said Farah also deleted evidence of the bribe on their phones, documents state.
Abdiaziz Farah and Nur were two of the five defendants who were found guilty during the trial. Said Farah was found not guilty.
There are still 45 more people expected to go on trial for the fraud scheme, including the founder of the nonprofit Aimee Bock, who has maintained her innocence. Defendants are accused of spending the money on luxury cars, jewelry, travel, and property, while just a fraction went to feed low-income children.
On Wednesday, Luger charged the five defendants with conspiracy to bribe a juror, bribery of a juror, and corruptly influencing a juror. Abdiaziz Farah was also charged with obstruction of justice.
