Shakopee man pleads guilty to bribing juror in Feeding Our Future trial
Defendant Abdimajid Mohamed Nur arrives at the Diana E. Murphy federal courthouse in Minneapolis on the 14th day of testimony in the Feeding Our Future trial Friday, May 17, 2024. Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer.
One of the five people charged with bribing a juror with $120,000 in the massive Feeding Our Future pandemic fraud case pleaded guilty on Tuesday.
Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, 23, of Shakopee, stood with his attorney and pleaded guilty to one count of bribing a juror before a federal judge and roomful of journalists and supporters who he waved to when he entered the courtroom flanked by U.S. marshals. The maximum sentence is 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Nur said he decided to plead guilty because “I want to get on the right path.”
Nur is one of five people indicted by a grand jury in June on multiple bribery charges. Three were on trial for stealing $49 million from a federal program intended to feed hungry children during the pandemic; a fourth is the brother of two defendants; and the fifth is a Seattle woman alleged to have been recruited to deliver the bribe money.
Two of the three people who were on trial when the bribe happened were ultimately convicted — Abdiaziz Shafii Farah and Abdimajid Mohamed Nur — and a third, Said Shafii Farah, was acquitted and now faces multiple bribery charges.
The attempted bribe happened one day before the jury was set to begin deliberations. Prosecutors say the group targeted the only juror of color — an Asian-American woman who was also the youngest juror, at age 23. Juror No. 52 called 911 after a woman dropped off a gift bag with $120,000 in cash at her home in Spring Lake Park, a suburb north of Minneapolis. The juror, who told investigators she was “terrified,” was later excused from jury duty.
Nur admitted in court Wednesday that he helped plan the bribery, researching the juror online, finding her home address and recruiting the Seattle woman with whom he’d had a previous relationship, Ladan Mohamed Ali, to deliver the bribe. He admitted the two spoke by phone numerous times about the bribe, which she agreed to deliver for $150,000, before Ali flew to Minneapolis to carry out the scheme on May 30.
Nur said he asked Ali to surveil and follow the juror home from the trial the next day, admitting he gave Ali a photo of the juror’s car and a map to get to the parking ramp where she parked. Prosecutors have said her rental car drove near the juror’s home 19 times the weekend before the bribe money was dropped off.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said Ali lied and told Nur on June 1 that she approached the juror in a bar, and the juror said she could be bribed for $500,000. Nur relayed that to another defendant, Abdiaziz Farah, who said he would get the money.
Prosecutors said Ali never actually talked to the juror in a bar.
“None of that was true,” Thompson said.
“To my knowledge I thought that was true,” Nur replied.
Instead, a Hallmark gift bag adorned with butterflies and flowers was delivered on June 2 with $120,000 and instructions on how to argue for an acquittal, and a promise to bring more if the juror voted to acquit all seven defendants.
Prosecutors say Ali’s fingerprints were found on the bag.
U.S. District Judge David Doty will sentence Nur after a pre-sentence investigation. Nur also awaits sentencing in the fraud case.
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