Feeding Our Future attempted juror bribe: Man pleads guilty
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - One of the five people indicted in the attempted bribery of a juror in the Feeding Our Future trial has pleaded guilty in federal court.
Abimajid Nur, Said Farah, and Abdiaziz Farah, who were defendants in the initial trial, along with Abdulkarim Farah and Ladan Ali, face charges in connection to an alleged conspiracy to bribe Juror 52 with $120,000 in exchange for a not-guilty verdict.
The jury in the original case was sequestered after the incident, and the juror who was targeted for the attempted bribe was dismissed.
Nur, 23, faced five charges in the Feeding Our Future trial, and the jury ultimately found him guilty on two counts of wire fire and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The plea agreement
Nur pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of bribery of a juror. He was initially facing one count each of corruptly influencing a juror, conspiracy to bribe a juror, and bribery of a juror, according to the Department of Justice.
The charge of bribery of a juror carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Nur’s sentencing date will be scheduled at a later date.
How it happened
Nur was one of the seven defendants who went to trial for the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme that attempted to steal more than $40 million from the federal child nutrition program.
During the trial, Nur and four others conspired to bribe a juror with cash in an attempt to obtain a not-guilty verdict, prosecutors said.
For his alleged role in the scheme, Nur helped research Juror 52, discovered her address, and obtained information about her family members. He recruited Ali, who flew from Seattle, to deliver the bribe money to the juror.
Court records say Ali gave Nur false intel that the juror was interested in the bribe. He obtained the money and later gave Ali the cash in a cardboard box, which she transferred to a gift bag.
Ali then met up with another co-defendant, Abdulkarim Farah, and allegedly went to Juror 52’s house to deliver the bribe. Abdulkarim Farah took a video of the exchange and sent it to Nur using an encrypted messaging app.
Court records say Nur later deleted the video and the app in an effort to conceal evidence.
According to court records, the co-defendants chose Juror 52 because she was the youngest of the group and "believed to be the only juror of color."
The gift bag contained cash and directions to vote not guilty for all defendants and to convince the other jurors to do the same. They provided a list of "arguments to convince other jurors" and stated, "[We] are immigrants, they don’t respect us" and that the government was "prejudice[d] against people of color," court records read.
The bag was handed to a juror’s family member, and Juror 52 called 911 to report the bribe. Juror 52 and another juror who discussed the bribery attempt were dismissed from the case.
The other defendants
Ali, Said Farah, Abdiaziz Farah and Abdulkarim Farah all face one count of conspiracy to bribe a juror, bribery of a juror, and corruptly influencing a juror. Abdiaziz Farah faces an additional charge of obstruction of justice.
The four co-defendants entered a not-guilty plea.
Feeding Our Future verdicts: Full list of each charge and verdict
Five people were found guilty on most charges in the Feeding Our Future scheme. Here is the full list of charges and verdicts.