Man pleads guilty to bribing a Minnesota juror with a bag of cash in COVID-19-related fraud case

MINNEAPOLIS — One of five people charged with attempting to bribe a Minnesota juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash in exchange for an acquittal in a fraud case pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday.

Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery of a juror, admitting that he recruited a woman to offer the juror money as part of an elaborate scheme that officials said threatened foundational aspects of the judicial system. Four other defendants charged in the bribery scheme have pleaded not guilty.

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. Nur is one of five people who were convicted in the initial fraud case. More than $250 million in federal funds were taken overall in the scheme, and only about $50 million has been recovered, authorities say.

''I want to get on the right path,'' Nur said before entering a guilty plea in the bribery case.

Court documents and prosecutors' oral reading of the plea agreement revealed an extravagant scheme in which the accused researched the juror's personal information on social media, surveilled her, tracked her daily habits and bought a GPS device to install on her car. Authorities believe the defendants targeted the woman, known as ''Juror #52,'' because she was the youngest and they believed her to be the only person of color on the panel.

The four others charged with crimes related to the bribe are Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Said Shafii Farah, Abdulkarim Shafii Farah and Ladan Mohamed Ali.

According to the indictment, the bribery plan was hatched in mid-May. In court Tuesday, Nur admitted to recruiting Ali, who is accused of delivering the bribe money to the juror's home. She flew from Seattle to Minneapolis on May 17 to meet with Nur and allegedly agreed to deliver the bribe money to the home of ''Juror #52'' in exchange for $150,000, prosecutors said.

Ali is accused of falsely telling Nur that she had approached the juror at a bar. She claimed the juror wanted $500,000 in exchange for returning a not guilty verdict, but in reality, Ali had never spoken to the juror, prosecutors said.

On June 2, Abdiaziz Farah instructed Nur to meet at Said Farah's business to pick up the bribe money, according to the indictment. When Nur arrived at the business, Said Farah gave him a cardboard box containing the money and told Nur to ''be safe.'' Nur gave the money to Ali after picking her up in a parking lot later in the day.

That night, Ali knocked on the door and was greeted by a relative of the juror. Ali handed the gift bag to her and explained there would be more money if the juror voted to acquit.

The juror called police after she got home and gave them the bag, according to an FBI affidavit. Federal authorities launched an investigation including raids of several of the defendants' homes.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, described the scheme as ''something out of a mob movie.''