A woman from Seattle has now officially been charged with trying to influence the outcome of a Federal trial by dropping off $120,000 in cash at the home of a juror.
31 year old Ladan Mohamed Ali left the cash along with instructions to convince others to acquit the defendants, according to a report from KOMO.
KOMO reported that "the bribe also included a set of instructions to the juror to 'inject racism into the case' and to use the Feeding Our Future defendants' status as immigrants to gain sympathy from other jurors."
Now, she, along with her co-conspirators Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 35, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 23, Said Shafii Farah, 42, and 24-year-old Abdulkarim Shafii Farah, will be defendants themselves.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Andrew M. Luger commented: “These defendants engaged in a chilling attack on our justice system. They sought to buy a juror and use her to infiltrate the jury with their own false arguments - arguments that had nothing to do with the evidence or the law.”
Prosecutors added: “As part of the scheme, the conspirators decided to target Juror 52 because she was the youngest juror and they believed her to be the only juror of color. The conspirators conducted online research to obtain Juror 52’s personal information, including her home address and information about her background and family members."
"They conducted surveillance of Juror 52 to confirm her home address and obtain information about Juror 52’s daily habits," they said.
The indictment read: “Ladan Ali handed the gift bag to a relative of juror 52 and explained there would be more money if juror 52 voted to acquit the defendants.”
“Fortunately for all of us, juror 52 could not be bought and she terminated their scheme. It is an obvious and blatant attempt to enflame the jury so they disregard their duty to render justice based on the evidence. Through this blueprint for acquittal, the defendants made it clear they wanted to infiltrate the jury not only with a bribe, but with a well-thought out plan to corrupt our system and undermine the rule of law."
On June 2, the night before closing arguments in the trial, Ali and Farah drove to a juror's house with bribe money in gift bags, according to the indictment.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota told KOMO News that Ladan Ali is not in custody and is expected to self-surrender for an initial federal court appearance later this week.
ABC News reported that this trial was the first in the Feeding Our Future fraud case, where dozens are accused of misusing federal child nutrition funds during the COVID-19 pandemic to buy luxury items.
The DOJ has charged 47 defendants in the $250-million fraud scheme involving misappropriated and laundered funds from the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
