A woman pleads guilty to trying to bribe a juror in a major COVID-related fraud case

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

Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, delivered a cash bribe in a scheme that involved following a juror to her home and promising more money if the woman agreed to an acquittal in the fraud case. Ali is one of five people charged with attempting to bribe the juror, a scheme that prosecutors have described as “something out of a mafia movie.” Officials have also said that rare attempts to bribe jurors threaten 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 pleaded guilty because she wanted to “take responsibility for her actions.” Ali’s attorney, Eric Newmark, did not immediately return a phone call seeking additional comment.

Court documents show that extravagant plan in which Ali and her co-defendants are accused of looking up jurors’ personal information on social media, surveilling her, tracking her daily habits and purchasing a GPS device to install in her car.

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

Documents show the group hatched the bribery plan in mid-May.

Nur admitted that he recruited Ali, who provided the bribe money to the house of the judgesShe flew from Seattle to Minneapolis in May to meet Nur and later that month allegedly agreed to deliver the bribe money to the home of “Juror #52” in exchange for $150,000, prosecutors said.

In new details revealed in federal court Thursday, prosecutors said Ali was concerned the scheme would fail and she wouldn’t get paid. So Ali devised a separate plan to steal some or all of the bribe money.

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

On June 2, Abdiaziz Farah instructed Nur to meet Said Farah at her business to pick up the bribe money, court records said. When Nur arrived at the business, Said Farah handed him a cardboard box with the money inside. Nur gave the money to Ali after he picked her up from a parking lot later in the 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 jurors’ house.

Ali knew that Abdulkarim Farah planned to follow her and film the meeting at the jurors’ house. However, when he insisted on Ali’s car, rather than separate cars, she dropped her separate plan to steal all the bribes.

Nur had given Ali $200,000 in cash, all of which was intended to bribe the jury. Ali knocked on the jury door and was greeted by a family member. Ali gave her the gift bag and explained that there would be more money if the jury voted to acquit her. But Ali only provided $120,000 and kept the remaining $80,000 for himself.

The jurors called police and launched an FBI investigation that led to the arrest of the group. Authorities believe the suspects targeted the woman, known as “Juror #52,” because she was the youngest and they thought she might have sympathy for the defendant, as the only person of color on the panel.

Five of the seven people charged in the pandemic fraud trial were later convicted. The defendants in that case were accused of working together to steal more than $40 million from a federal program meant to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, more than $250 million in federal funds were seized in the scheme, and only about $50 million has been recovered, authorities say.

Abdiaziz Farah and Abdimajid Nur were among five people convicted in the 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 will be sentenced later.