A man who tried to bribe a juror in the first Feeding Our Future trial is headed to federal prison. Judge Eric Tostrud on Wednesday sentenced Abdulkarim Farah to nearly five years behind bars for his role in the plot.
The ostensibly sophisticated but ultimately ham-handed plot unraveled during closing arguments in the trial of seven people connected to a small restaurant in Shakopee. Federal prosecutors had accused them of stealing $47 million from taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during the pandemic.
This was part of a much scheme centered around the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, in which 79 people would be charged. The food fraud case led FBI agents to investigate allegations of widespread fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid program.
As closing arguments were underway in June of 2024, U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel halted the proceedings when prosecutors told her that several defendants schemed with two other people to bribe one of the jurors.
The young woman – known as Juror 52 – called 911 after someone came to her house on a Sunday evening, dropped off a Hallmark gift bag containing $120,000 in cash, and promised more if she’d vote to acquit.
Police contacted the FBI, and agents picked up the cash. Brasel excused Juror 52 from the trial before closing arguments resumed.
Abdulkarim Farah, 25, is the younger brother of two of the trial defendants, Abdiaziz Farah and Said Farah. They and a third defendant recruited Abdulkarim to find out where the juror lived.
Abdulkarim would later drive one of their associates – Ladan Ali – to Juror 52’s house with the bag of cash. But the older Farah brothers didn’t trust Ali, so they directed Abdulkarim to record video of the delivery. As prosecutors would later reveal, the men had gathered up $200,000 in cash for the bribe, but Ali took $80,000 for herself before delivering the rest to the juror’s home.
All five people involved in the jury bribery scheme pleaded guilty. Prosecutors asked for and received a 57-month prison term for Abdulkarim Farah, who was the first of the five to be sentenced.
Defense attorney Kevin DeVore said in court that his client accepts responsibility but is “young, he’s naive, he’s blindly loyal,” and he was trying to help his brothers.
DeVore added that his client has already spent more than a year and a half in the Sherburne County Jail and asked that Farah be sentenced to time served.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Murphy said Farah knew what he was doing.
“There’s no innocent reason why a person would follow and surveil a juror in a criminal case,” Murphy said
Murphy is an experienced prosecutor, but was not part of the original trial team. His colleagues who’d spent years working on the Feeding Our Future and Medicaid fraud cases all quit in protest over the Justice Department’s response to the killings by immigration agents of Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti.
“I wish I could take it all back, so I’d like to apologize to the court and my family,” Farah told Tostrud, adding that wants to go to college after he leaves prison.
Tostrud reminded Farah of the widespread consequences of his crime.
“Juror bribery in any one case threatens not only the integrity of the jury in that one case, but the integrity of the system. It harms public trust in the courts,” Tostrud said. He also praised Juror 52 for her personal integrity.
“We’re here because one person resisted this overture,” Tostrud said. “Juror 52 deserves a debt of gratitude that’s far more valuable than the money that she was offered.”
The other four people convicted in the jury bribery scheme are awaiting sentencing. Judge Brasel already gave Abdiaziz Farah 28 years for his underlying fraud conviction. But Farah could still face additional time for leading the bribery scheme.
Because Brasel was a witness to the attempt to bribe the juror, other federal judges are handling the bribery case.
Three other defendants are also awaiting sentencing. Among them is Said Farah, who in an ironic twist was acquitted of the fraud charges at trial but is jailed after admitting that they played a part in the ill-fated attempt to bribe Juror 52.
