MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota – Five individuals are facing charges for allegedly attempting to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash in a US pandemic fraud trial. The juror, a 23-year-old woman, reported receiving a gift bag filled with cash during the final days of the federal criminal trial in Minneapolis.
The alleged scheme, described as something out of a mob movie by Assistant US Attorney Joseph Thompson, came to light earlier this month. Prosecutors have accused 70 individuals of stealing $250 million from federal food programs amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Among the five charged with bribery are three individuals who were on trial for submitting fake names of non-existent children to receive funds intended for feeding needy children, ultimately pocketing millions of dollars.
Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah, Abdulkarim Shafii Farah, and Ladan Mohamed Ali face charges of conspiracy to bribe a juror, bribery of a juror, and corruptly influencing a juror. The group allegedly targeted the juror, believed to be the only juror of color on the panel, in an attempt to sway the trial in their favor.
US Attorney Andrew Luger denounced the bribery attempt as a “chilling attack on our justice system” during a news conference. He expressed gratitude that the juror could not be swayed by the illicit offer.
The case stems from a trial involving the theft of over $40 million by employees of Feeding Our Future, a now-defunct charity that misappropriated funds from a federal food aid program. Despite the attempted bribery, the jury convicted five defendants in the embezzlement case, acquitting two others. The suspects allegedly aimed to persuade the juror to convince the rest of the panel that prosecutors were racist, hoping for an acquittal on those grounds.
According to prosecutors, Ladan Mohamed Ali, not initially implicated in the plot, traveled from Seattle to Minneapolis to track the juror’s movements. On the night of June 2, Ali and another individual visited the juror’s residence, delivering cash to a relative with the promise of more funds if the juror influenced other panel members to vote against conviction.
Bribing a juror is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, marking the state’s first criminal case involving an attempted federal juror bribery in Minnesota, as reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.