Woman pleads guilty to attempted bribery of juror in major COVID fraud case

MINNEAPOLIS – A Seattle woman pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to bribe a Minnesota juror with a $120,000 bag of cash in exchange for an acquittal in one of the nation’s largest COVID-19 fraud cases.

Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, paid the cash bribe as part of a scheme that involved following a juror to her home and promising more money if she agreed to acquit him on fraud charges. Ali is one of five people charged with trying to bribe a juror, a scheme that prosecutors described as “something out of a Mafia movie.” Officials also said the rare attempts to bribe jurors threaten to undermine fundamental aspects of the justice system.

Ali wiped away tears as she answered questions from prosecutors before U.S. District Judge David Doty. She said she was pleading guilty because she “wanted to take responsibility for my actions.” Ali’s attorney, Eric Newmark, did not immediately return a call seeking additional comment.

Court documents revealed an extravagant scheme in which Ali and her co-defendants were accused of collecting the juror’s personal information on social media, spying on her, tracking her daily habits and purchasing a GPS device to install in her car.

The four others charged with bribery-related offences are Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Said Shafii Farah, Abdulkarim Shafii Farah and Abdimajid Mohamed Nur. Nur, 23, pleaded guilty in July to one count of bribery of a juror. The other three defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The documents show the group developed a bribery plan in mid-May.

Nur admitted to recruiting Ali, who delivered the bribe to the juror’s home. In May, she flew from Seattle to Minneapolis to meet with Nur and allegedly agreed to deliver the bribe later that month to the home of “juror No. 52” in exchange for $150,000, prosecutors said.

In new details released Thursday in federal court, prosecutors said Ali feared the scheme would fail and she wouldn’t get paid, so Ali hatched a separate plan to steal some or all of the bribe money.

Ali lied to Nur and said she approached the juror at a bar, according to prosecutors. Ali claimed the juror wanted $500,000 in exchange for an acquittal and that the juror told her to give him the money when she was home alone. In fact, Ali never spoke to the juror, prosecutors said.

On June 2, Abdiaziz Farah instructed Nur to meet her at Said Farah’s business to collect the bribe, court documents say. When Nur arrived at the business, Said Farah gave him a cardboard box with the money. Nur gave the money to Ali after he picked her up in the parking lot later that day. Hours later, Ali and Abdulkarim Farah drove to a Target store and bought a screwdriver, which they used to remove the license plates from Ali’s rental car before driving to the jury house.

Ali knew that Abdulkarim Farah planned to follow her and film the incident at the juror’s house, but when he insisted that instead of driving in separate cars, he would drive Ali himself, she abandoned her separate plan to steal all of the bribe money.

Nur gave Ali $200,000 in cash, all of which was to be used to bribe a juror. Ali knocked on the juror’s door and was greeted by a relative. Ali handed her a bag of gifts and explained that there would be more money if the juror voted to acquit. But Ali only gave $120,000 and kept the remaining $80,000 for herself.

The juror called the police, which sparked an FBI investigation that led to the group’s arrest. Authorities believe the defendants targeted the woman, known as “Juror #52,” because she was the youngest and they believed she might be sympathetic to the defendant, the only person of color on the bench.

Five of the seven people charged in the pandemic fraud case were later convicted. The defendants in the case were accused of coordinating to steal more than $40 million from a federal program that was designed to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities say the scheme took more than $250 million in federal funds and recovered only about $50 million.

Abdiaziz Farah and Abdimajid Nur were among five people convicted in a pandemic fraud trial in June, while Said Farah and another person were acquitted. Abdulkarim Farah and Ali were not involved in the original fraud case.

Ali’s verdict will be announced at a later date.