Two men ordered detained, plead not guilty in Feeding Our Future jury bribery case

Two of the five people accused of bribing a juror in last month’s federal food aid fraud trial were ordered to remain jailed Wednesday by a federal judge who warned that case was an “attack on the heart of our judicial system and rule of law.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Tony Leung concluded that no conditions outside of detention could ensure that brothers Said Shafii Farah and Abdulkarim Shafii Farah wouldn’t flee to evade prosecution or stop them from obstructing justice as they awaited trial on new charges announced last week.

Both men pleaded not guilty Wednesday. They are accused of carrying out the first attempted bribery of a Minnesota federal juror in more than half a century and are charged alongside their brother Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, as well as Abdimajid Mohamed Nur and Ladan Mohamed Ali.

Nur, Abdiaziz Farah and Said Farah were among the first seven people to stand trial in the massive Feeding Our Future fraud case. Abdiaziz Farah and Nur, along with three others, were convicted on the majority of the felony charges they faced, including wire fraud conspiracy. But Said Farah was one of two defendants acquitted last month.

According to charges, the defendants singled out a young woman identified as Juror 52 at the beginning of trial and worked to learn her habits and surveil her before delivering a bag of $120,000 in cash at her home just before deliberations were to begin last month. She was promised more money — prosecutors said Wednesday that the group had $200,000 in total cash for the scheme — in exchange for returning a not-guilty verdict. The juror reported the alleged bribery attempt to police and was excused from the trial the next day.

“It is no overstatement to say that this really has shook our legal community and has called into question the way we conduct jury trials in this district going forward,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said Wednesday.

Thompson pointed to allegations of a “deeply corrupt scheme” that threatened the fragility of the U.S. justice system as cause for detaining the Farah brothers. He also cited the family’s ownership of “millions of dollars” worth of real estate in Kenya.

Mike Villafranca, Said Farah’s attorney, argued that his client did not flee at any point during his lengthy trial and that the government has had his passport since January 2022. Kevin DeVore, who represents Abdulkarim Farah, submitted six sealed letters of support to emphasize strong community ties for his client, who was born in the United States and is a citizen. He said that Abdulkarim Farah is the half-brother of Abdiaziz and Said. Relatives of the men packed several rows of benches inside a Minneapolis federal courtroom Wednesday.

But Leung, in a line of questioning he acknowledged was lengthier because of the seriousness of the charges, spoke about the case in existential terms. The judge, troubled by what he called allegations of bribery “in such a pre-calculated and executed way,” said the alleged crimes imperiled foundational principles of the rule of law.

“We have not had these issues in our community, and it is very important that these issues are addressed in a very serious manner,” Leung said.

The last known case in Minnesota was when notorious Minneapolis mobster Kid Cann was convicted in 1961 of trying to bribe a juror.

Earlier Wednesday, Leung rescheduled a hearing for Abdiaziz Farah, a third brother also charged in the case because Farah retained a new attorney a night earlier. Farah will return to court for his own detention hearing and arraignment next Wednesday.

Ali pleaded not guilty and was released after her first court appearance last week. She will remain in Minnesota pending trial. Nur does not yet have a court hearing scheduled.

Prosecutors disclosed additional details about the alleged scheme in court Wednesday, including that Ali previously had a “personal relationship” with Nur. Prosecutors have said that Nur recruited Ali to fly from Seattle to take part in the bribery conspiracy. She must now remain in Minnesota as her case proceeds.

Thompson told Leung that Juror 52 “remains terrified,” and he said she could be seen crying in body camera footage of her initial meeting with law enforcement. FBI agents searched her car for tracking devices, and prosecutors have said the defendants ordered a tracking device as part of the conspiracy but it arrived late.

Thompson said the two Farah brothers who stood trial “concocted” the scheme and that Abdulkarim Farah recorded video of Ali dropping off the cash on June 2 so that they had evidence that could be used against the juror had she taken the money and not helped acquit them. He said prosecutors and FBI agents recognized Abdulkarim Farah as having attended the trial of his half-brothers this spring.

Thompson also disclosed that when the FBI searched Abdulkarim Farah’s home June 5, they discovered that he had initiated a factory reset on his phone to try to erase its contents. Abdiaziz Farah is being charged with obstructing justice for allegedly doing the same thing days earlier when U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel ordered all defendants to turn over their phones as agents probed the reported bribery.