Feeding our Future trial bribe: Woman set to plea guilty
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - It appears the woman accused of dropping off a bag containing $120,000 to a juror in the Feeding our Future fraud case is now set to plead guilty.
The court docket in the bribe case is now listing a change of plea hearing for Ladan Ali.
What happened?
As deliberations were underway in the massive fraud trial, a juror reported to police that a woman had shown up at their home and left a bag full of cash with a family member.
The woman indicated the money was for a vote to acquit in the trial.
However, the juror did the right thing and reported the attempted bribe to the authorities. As a result, the juror was dismissed from the case and the rest of the jury was sequestered.
Who is Ladan Ali?
Prosecutors say Ali was the woman who brought the bribe to the juror's home.
Ali lives in Seattle, Washington, and was flown in to deliver the bag of cash.
What did authorities say?
Federal prosecutors compared the bribe to something out of a mob movie when they announced charges against five people back in June.
"The news shocked all in the case and all who work in our criminal justice system," said U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger. "Corruption of a jury through intimidation or bribery is a serious federal crime that carries a significant prison sentence. Nationally, the Department of Justice and the FBI take jury intimidation and bribery extremely seriously and always have. But it just doesn’t happen in Minnesota – until now."
Prosecutors said they believed the bribery suspects targeted the juror because she was the youngest one on the case – 23 years old.
"When the bribe was announced in court, lead prosecutor Joe Thompson rightly stated that it was like something out of a mob movie," Luger explained. "That was three weeks ago. But now that we’ve put in weeks of work around the clock to unravel this plot, it is so much more. It’s alleged in the indictment and other documents, these defendants engaged in a chilling attack on our justice system. They sought to buy a juror and use her to infiltrate the juror with their own false arguments – arguments that had nothing to do with the evidence or law. They studied her, followed her, and determined that she would succumb to their scheme."
What happened in the Feeding our Future fraud case?
The jury ultimately delivered a split verdict, convicting five dependents on most charges while acquitting two others.