Woman pleads guilty to attempting to bribe juror in major COVID fraud case

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

Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, provided a cash bribe as part of a scheme that involved following a juror to her home and promising more money if the woman agreed to a not guilty verdict in the fraud case. Ali is one of five people charged with attempted juror bribery, a scheme prosecutors have described as “straight out of a mob movie.” Authorities 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 was pleading guilty because she “wanted to take responsibility for her actions.” Ali’s attorney, Eric Newmark, did not immediately return a call seeking further comment.

Court documents revealed an outrageous scheme in which Ali and his co-defendants are accused of searching for the juror's personal information on social media, surveilling her, tracking her daily habits and purchasing a GPS device to install in her car.

The four others charged with corruption-related crimes 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.

The group hatched its corruption plan in mid-May, the documents show.

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

According to new details revealed 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.

According to prosecutors, Ali lied to Nur and claimed she had approached the juror at a bar. Ali claimed the juror wanted $500,000 in exchange for a not guilty verdict, and that the juror had asked her to hand over the money when she was home alone. In reality, Ali never spoke to the juror, prosecutors said.

On June 2, Abdiaziz Farah asked Nur to go to Said Farah’s office to pick up the bribe money, according to court documents. When Nur arrived at the office, Said Farah gave him a cardboard box containing the money. Nur gave the money to Ali after picking it up in a parking lot later that day. Hours later, Ali and Abdulkarim Farah went to a Target store and purchased a screwdriver, which they used to remove the license plates from Ali’s rental car before driving to the juror’s home.

Ali knew that Abdulkarim Farah had planned to follow her and film the meeting at the juror's home, but when he insisted on driving Ali rather than taking separate cars, she abandoned her separate plan to steal all the bribe money.

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

The juror called the police, prompting an FBI investigation that led to the group’s arrest. Authorities believe the defendants targeted the woman, known as “Juror No. 52,” because she was the youngest and they thought she might be sympathetic to the defendant, being 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 coordinating the theft of more than $40 million from a federal program that was supposed to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than $250 million in federal funds were diverted in the scam, and only about $50 million of that was recovered, authorities say.

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

Ali will be sentenced at a later date.