A leading defendant in the sweeping Feeding Our Future fraud case pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to bribe a juror.
Abdiaziz Farah, 36, who was the leading defendant in the first Feeding Our Future trial last year, agreed to a recommended sentence of eight to 10 years in prison. This will come on top of the sentence he will serve for the nearly two dozen crimes jurors convicted him after last year’s trial, for which he potentially faces decades in prison.
In that case, prosecutors accused Abdiaziz Farah of defrauding the government out of $28 million and pocketing more than $8 million for himself. He did this as co-owner of Empire Cuisine and Market, a Shakopee deli that purported to supply food to several sites claiming to feed underprivileged children during the pandemic.
He faced trial with six other defendants last year. On the eve of jury deliberations toward the trial’s end, Abdiaziz Farah and others attempted to bribe one of the jurors in exchange for not guilty votes.
The juror called police after a woman dropped a bag of $120,000 in cash at her home. Prosecutors soon charged five people, including three defendants from the fraud trial, in the jury bribery scheme. Abdiaziz Farah is the fourth to plead guilty.
Clad in a white-and-orange striped shirt and orange jumpsuit pants, Abdiziz Farah softly answered yes to several questions during his plea hearing from Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Ebert and U.S. District Court Judge David Doty. Three people showed up in court to support Abdiaziz Farah.
Abdiaziz Farah has been held in Sherburne County Jail for the last year as he awaits sentencing, and several gray hairs that weren’t present during last year’s trial now speckle his beard and hair.
Abdiaziz made his formal plea while standing next to his attorney Daniel Gerdts and leaning on his left heel and answered with his head slightly down.
Doty asked Abdiaiziz Farah if he understood that once he pleads guilty he can’t go back.
“Tonight if you lie in your sack saying, ‘Oh my goodness, you shouldn’t have done that,’ and you call up Mr. Gerdts and say, ‘Get me out of that deal,’ you can’t do that, understand?”
“Yes, your honor,” the defendant said.
Abdiaziz Farah admitted to helping orchestrate the attempted bribery scheme by instructing co-defendant Abdimajid Nur to pick up the cash from co-defendant and older brother Said Farah’s warehouse. He then admitted to helping recruit Ladan Ali to deliver the cash to the juror. Abdiaziz Farah admitted that he and the other conspirators did not trust Ladan Ali to deliver the money on her own and in turn instructed his younger brother, Abdulkarim Farah, to chauffeur her and film her delivering the bribe.
Ladan Ali, who has also been charged and previously pleaded guilty in the bribery case, admitted that she lied to her co-conspirators about talking to the juror and instead planned to take all the money for herself. Although her plan failed, she managed to skim $80,000 from the bag, which originally contained $200,000 for the juror.
Finally, Abdiaziz Farah admitted to conducting a factory reset of his cell phone in court the next morning when prosecutors announced the bribe attempt in order to delete text messages and video of the bribery attempt.
