Woman who dropped off attempted bribe for Feeding Our Future juror pleads guilty

A Seattle woman who dropped off $120,000 for a juror in the Feeding Our Future trial pleaded guilty Thursday to federal criminal charges in a bribery attempt that shocked legal experts.

Ladan Mohamed Ali, 31, was charged in June, three weeks after she followed a juror from the downtown Minneapolis courthouse to her home and left the bag of cash, with promises of more money if the juror voted to acquit the defendants.

Ali had initially pleaded not guilty and was released from custody on supervised release. But she changed her plea and admitted to new details, publicly released Thursday, that she had pocketed $80,000 given to her by defendants to bribe the juror.

Ali faces a possible sentence of nearly five to six years in prison, less than the maximum of 15 years, in part because she agreed to accept responsibility in the plea agreement. She also agreed to forfeit any cash from the scheme and pay a fine of up to $200,000.

“From the very beginning, I wanted to take responsibility for my actions,” Ali said when asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson why she was pleading guilty in front of U.S. District Judge David Doty.

She’s one of five people charged in the bribery attempt, which made international news on the final day of closing arguments in the seven-week trial. The juror immediately reported the incident to police and was excused from jury duty, and the judge promptly sequestered the jury during deliberations for their safety.

The trial centered around U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that reimbursed schools, nonprofits and child-care centers for feeding low-income children after school and during the summer. The seven defendants were the first to be tried of the 70 people charged in the sprawling FBI investigation, including 18 who have pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors said more than $250 million in federal reimbursements was stolen and spent on luxury homes, cars and other lavish expenses, in what was one of the largest pandemic-era fraud cases in the United States.

Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, Abdimajid Mohamed Nur, Said Shafii Farah and Abdulkarim Shafii Farah were also charged in the attempted bribery. Nur pleaded guilty last month; the other three men have pleaded not guilty. Nur, Abdiaziz Farah and three others on trial were convicted in the meal fraud scheme.

Said Farah and another defendant on trial were acquitted, but Said Farah has been in custody since he was charged in the attempted bribe along with the three other men.

According to court documents, Nur, who had previously dated Ali, and the Farah brothers promised her $150,000 for her role in the attempted bribery of the youngest member of the jury and its only person of color.

The jurors’ names were not publicly disclosed during or since the seven-week trial; instead, they were referred to by numbers. The defendants surveilled Juror #52, and Ali followed the woman from the courthouse as she drove home.

In details released Thursday, Ali confirmed to Thompson that she became concerned the plan to bribe the 23-year-old juror wouldn’t work and that she wouldn’t be paid. Despite never meeting the juror, she said, she lied to Nur that she had met her at a bar and that the juror had demanded $500,000. Nur gave Ali $200,000 in cash to give the juror.

Thompson said Thursday that Ali wanted to steal the money, but her plan was foiled when Abdulkarim Farah insisted on driving her to the juror’s house. He removed the license plates on Ali’s rental car and recorded her delivering the cash.

But at some point, Ali pocketed $80,000 and gave the juror’s relative a gift bag with the remaining $120,000. She used the juror’s first name even though it wasn’t publicly known.

Ali, who prosecutors said has returned to live in Minnesota from Seattle, spoke loudly and clearly in court Thursday as she answered questions from Thompson and Doty. After Thompson told her she could face nearly five to six years in prison, she started to cry. Her lawyer handed her a tissue.

“It’s OK, thank you,” she said, as the hearing continued.

Ali and her attorney, Eric Newmark, declined to speak to reporters when they left the courtroom. Prosecutors didn’t object to her remaining free until her sentencing hearing, which hasn’t yet been scheduled.

In 2023, Ali was convicted in Scott County District Court of check forgery after she altered a $1,500 check from her company, a Shakopee insurance business, to $30,000. According to court records, she spent three days in jail and was placed on supervised probation for two years.

According to the Minnesota Reformer, Ali worked for Gar Gaar Family Services at some point. Gar Gaar, also known as Youth Leadership Academy, was a Minneapolis nonprofit that Khadija Ali started in 2020. It enrolled in the child nutrition programs, but in December 2021 — one month before the FBI raided the St. Anthony nonprofit Feeding Our Future — the Minnesota Department of Education rejected Gar Gaar from the school meal program and cited several reasons, including that the organization hadn’t demonstrated it was financially viable as required by federal rules.

Gar Gaar leaders took their case to the state Court of Appeals, arguing they were unfairly scrutinized, but the decision was upheld.

In the meal fraud case, none of the 18 people who have pleaded guilty has been sentenced, but each could face prison terms running from about two years to nearly five years.

Other defendants are scheduled to stand trial this fall or next year. Feeding Our Future executive director Aimee Bock, and defendants tied to Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis, the largest participant in the meal programs involved in the investigation, are scheduled for trial in February.