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

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

Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, dropped off a cash bribe in a plan that involved tracking a juror to her home and promising more money if the woman agreed to return a not guilty verdict in the fraud case. Ali is one of five people charged in the attempted bribery of the juror, a scheme prosecutors have described as “something out of a mob movie.” Officials have also said rare attempts to bribe jurors threaten foundational aspects of the judicial system.

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

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

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

The group hatched the bribery plan in mid-May, records 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 with Nur and allegedly agreed to deliver the bribe money later that month 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 plan would fail and that she would not get paid. So Ali came up with 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, according to prosecutors. Ali claimed the juror wanted $500,000 in exchange for returning a not guilty verdict, and that the juror had instructed her to deliver the money when she'd be home alone. 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, court records say. When Nur arrived at the business, Said Farah gave him a cardboard box containing the money. Nur gave the money to Ali after picking her up in a parking lot later in the day. Hours later, Ali and Abdulkarim Farah drove 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 Abdulkarim Farah had planned to follow her and film the encounter 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 of the bribe money.

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

The juror called the police, setting off an 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, 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 coordinating to steal 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 taken overall 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 at a later date.