Shakopee Man Admits To Bribing 'Feeding Our Future' Juror

MINNEAPOLIS – A Shakopee man admitted to his role in providing a $120,000 bribe to a juror in the "Feeding Our Future" trial, U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced.

Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 23, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of bribery of a juror. A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Nur is the first person to plead guilty in the bribery case. Last month, Nur and four others were charged with conspiracy to bribe a juror, bribery of a juror, and corruptly influencing a juror.

The defendants are:

• Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 35, of Savage (Original trial defendant, found guilty)
• Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 23, of Shakopee (Original trial defendant, found guilty)
• Said Shafii Farah, 42, of Minneapolis (Original trial defendant, found not guilty)
• Abdulkarim Shafii Farah, 24, of Minneapolis
• Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, of Seattle

Abdiaziz Farah faces an additional charge of obstruction of justice.
The juror who was bribed immediately reported the incident to the police and was excused from serving on the jury.

Of the five people charged in the conspiracy, three were defendants in the original Feeding Our Future trial. The jury had acquitted Said Shafii Farah.

According to authorities, the five defendants conspired with each other to provide a cash bribe to one of the jurors in exchange for the juror returning a not-guilty verdict in the trial.

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, investigators said.

The conspirators found Juror 52’s personal information — including her home address, background, and family members — online, according to prosecutors.

They also conducted surveillance of Juror 52 to confirm her home address and learn Juror 52’s daily habits, authorities said.

One of the conspirators followed Juror 52 home as she left the courthouse and they purchased a GPS tracking device to covertly install on Juror 52’s car to track her movements, according to investigators.

The conspirators then obtained approximately $200,000 in cash to be delivered and paid to Juror 52 as a bribe in exchange for a not-guilty verdict in the trial, authorities said.

The conspirators drafted a list of instructions for Juror 52 that included directions for her to vote "NOT GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS FOR ALL DEFENDANTS" and to "convince all the remaining jurors to mark NOT GUILTY for all defendants and all counts," according to investigators.

The conspirators compiled a list of "arguments to convince other jurors," many of which appeared designed to convince Juror 52 that the prosecution was motivated by racial animus, authorities said.

On May 31, Ali attempted to follow Juror 52 home as she left a downtown Minneapolis parking ramp after the first day of closing arguments in the trial, according to investigators.

On June 2, Abdiaziz Farah instructed Nur to meet him at Said Farah’s business, Bushra Wholesalers, to pick up the bribe money, prosecutors said.

Later that day, Nur met with Ali and gave her a box containing the bribe money he had received from Said Farah, according to investigators.

Ali took the money and put it inside a Hallmark gift bag, authorities said.

At about 8:50 p.m. that evening, Abdulkarim Farah and Ali drove to Juror 52’s house, according to prosecutors.

Ali approached the house and handed the gift bag containing $120,000 in bribe money to a relative of Juror 52 and explained that the money was in exchange for a not-guilty verdict, court documents allege.

Ali promised that there would be more money if Juror 52 voted to acquit all the defendants. Abdulkarim Farah remained in the car and took a video recording of Ali dropping off the bribe money at Juror 52’s house, authorities said.

Abdulkarim Farah sent the video to his co-conspirators using an encrypted messaging app, according to prosecutors.

On June 3, after being ordered by Judge Nancy Brasel to surrender their phones to law enforcement, Abdiaziz Farah conducted a factory reset of his iPhone in order to delete the messages, video, and other evidence of the bribe attempt, authorities said.

Nur and Said Farah also deleted evidence of the bribe attempt from their phones, according to prosecutors.