Third person pleads guilty to bribing juror with $120,000 bag of cash in Feeding Our Future trial
A Minneapolis man is the third defendant to plead guilty to their role in bribing a juror in the Feeding Our Future trial with a bag of $120,000 in cash.
Abdulkarim Farah entered the plea Wednesday, Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick said.
Abdulkarim Farah is among five defendants — two of them brothers of his — charged with crimes related to the bribe. The four others are Abdiaziz Farah, Said Farah, Abdimajid Nur and Ladan Ali.
The bribe attempt surrounded the trial of seven defendants in one of the country's largest COVID-19-related fraud cases. The defendants were accused of coordinating to steal more than $40 million from a federal program that was supposed to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Court documents say after identifying and deciding to target "Juror #52", Abdulkarim Farah surveilled the juror, tracked her daily habits and bought a GPS device to install on her car. Authorities believe the defendants targeted the woman because she was the youngest and they believed her to be the only person of color on the panel.
According to the indictment, the bribery plan was hatched in mid-May 2024. During his plea hearing last year, Nur admitted to recruiting Ali, who is said to have delivered the bribe money to the juror's home. She flew from Seattle to Minneapolis to meet with Nur and agreed to deliver the bribe money to the home of "Juror #52" in exchange for $150,000, prosecutors said.
On the night of June 2, 2024, Abdulkarim Farah drove Ali to the juror's home and recorded her handing the gift bag full of money to a relative of the juror, explaining there would be more money if she voted to acquit the defendants.
Afterward, Abdulkarim Farah allegedly sent the video to his brother, Abdiaziz Farah. When the bribe was disclosed in court the next day, court documents say Abdulkarim Farah uninstalled and deleted an encrypted messaging app from his phone to destroy messages sent concerning the bribery attempt.
Ali and Nur have both pleaded guilty to their roles in the bribery.
A sentencing for Abdulkarim Farah will be scheduled at a later date.