Final defendant pleads guilty in plot to bribe juror with $120,000 during Feeding Our Future trial

The fifth and final defendant charged with attempting to bribe a juror with $120,000 during last year’s federal meal fraud trial pleaded guilty Thursday.

Said Farah, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery of a juror in a Minneapolis federal courtroom in connection with the plot to give the juror a bag of cash in an exchange for an acquittal in the massive Feeding Our Future case.

Jurors found Farah not guilty of charges in connection with the meals program fraud, but another federal grand jury later indicted him in the bribery attempt. Also indicted were Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Ladan Mohamed Ali and Abdulkarim Shafii Farah.

All have now pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

The bribery was attempted the night before final closing arguments in the seven-week trial, the first in the broader case that’s since charged 73 people with stealing $250 million from a federal program meant to feed needy children.

According to charges, the defendants focused on a 23-year-old female juror in the beginning of proceedings last year and researched her address and social media to find her home address.

Abdimajid Nur recruited Ladan Ali to fly from Seattle to Minneapolis to deliver the bribe money to the juror. Abdiaziz Farah then arranged for $200,000 to be picked up at Said Farah’s business, Bushra Wholesalers. Said Farah handed over a cardboard box containing the cash to Abdimajid Nur, who delivered the money to Ladan Ali in a parking lot in Bloomington.

The incident was reported to police, and the juror was excused from the trial.

“I watched this unfold with my own eyes. It was corruption stacked on corruption,” said acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who helped prosecute the case.

“The Feeding Our Future scheme was already a staggering and brazen fraud. But then came something even more corrosive: a cynical attempt to buy off a juror who stood strong and refused to be corrupted. I cannot overstate how painful this was for all involved.

“This was an unprecedented attack on our very system of justice. It shook Minnesota to its core,“ Thompson continued. ”Now we must grapple with how we got here—no more denial, no more looking away. We must not allow corruption and fraud to define the future of justice in Minnesota.”

Abdiaziz Farah and Abdimajid Nur were also on trial during the bribery attempt and ultimately were convicted.