As Feeding Our Future jury deliberated, FBI raided one defendant’s home

As the jury in the Feeding Our Future trial continued to deliberate Wednesday for a second day, the house of a Shakopee businessman on trial was raided by FBI agents as they investigate who leaked a list of juror names, leading to an attempted bribe.

The Savage home of Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 35, was searched for three hours by FBI agents, starting at 7:30 a.m., said a neighbor who declined to give their name.

”There were six or so cars out here and the FBI had their guns out behind their cars,” she said, adding that they ordered three women, a toddler and an infant to come outside.

The FBI didn’t release any details about what they found at the home, or if other locations were searched. A message left with Farah’s attorney, Andrew Birrell, wasn’t returned.

Farah’s home was one of more than two dozen homes and businesses that the FBI raided in January 2022, seizing documents, cars and other items prosecutors say were purchased with federal money meant to fund meals for children in need.

An FBI agent testified during the six-week trial about finding more than $64,000 in cash inside Farah’s home and cars, and confiscating four vehicles, including a new Tesla and Porsche. Prosecutors say the house and luxury items were purchased with federal reimbursements meant to pay for meals.

The FBI is investigating who leaked jurors’ names after a woman dropped off a bag of $120,000 in cash at one juror’s home on Sunday and added that she would get more cash if she voted to acquit the defendants. The juror, who immediately reported the incident to police, was excused from serving on the jury on Monday.

The list of jurors’ names was briefly available to attorneys during jury selection. Throughout the trial, jurors have been identified only by their juror number. A second juror was excused Tuesday when she heard about the attempted bribery from a family member.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel sequestered the jury Monday night after the attempted bribery, and added security to the courtroom, detained defendants and confiscated their phones.

Birrell has argued to the jury that his client was a successful businessman who was allowed to make a profit as a vendor in the meal programs and spend the money as he liked. He argued that the federal government cherry-picked data to make their case that high meal counts were improbable.

“They like to flash the cash because it looks like something is wrong,” he told the jury in his closing argument, adding that defendants didn’t try to hide their transactions using cash but instead made legitimate purchases traceable to bank accounts. “That’s not concealment. That’s operating completely above board.”

Inside the downtown Minneapolis federal courthouse, the six men and six women on the jury received the case around 4:30 p.m. Monday after hearing about 135 hours of testimony and arguments over 24 days. They started deliberating Tuesday morning, considering 41 federal criminal counts against seven defendants.

Farah and the six other defendants on trial, all tied to his Shakopee restaurant, received more than $40 million for 18 million meals, part of U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that reimburse schools, nonprofits and day cares for feeding low-income children after school or during the summer.