Shakopee Man Pleads Guilty to $120,000 Bribe Attempt in Feeding Our Future Trial

(KNSI) – A Shakopee man has pleaded guilty to his role in providing a $120,000 bribe to a juror in the Feeding Our Future fraud trial.

Abdimajid Mohamed Nur pleaded guilty on Tuesday in U.S. District Court to one count of bribery of a juror.

Federal prosecutors say in April; the 23-year-old conspired with four others to attempt to get the juror to vote not guilty during the trial of seven defendants in the fraud case. According to court records, Nur and his co-defendants decided to target Juror 52 because she was the youngest, and they believed her to be the only juror of color. The group conducted online research to gather personal information, including her home address, information about her background and her family.

Nur allegedly recruited his co-defendant, Ladan Ali, to deliver the bribe money. Ali is accused of flying from Seattle to Minneapolis to meet with Nur and discuss the plan. Investigators claim Ali agreed to deliver the bribe money in exchange for a $150,000 cash payment.

According to court documents, on May 31st, Nur told Ali to follow the juror home as she left a downtown Minneapolis parking ramp after the first day of closing arguments. Prosecutos say on June 1st, Ali told Nur -falsely-that she had approached the juror at a bar and that the juror was interested in taking the bribe but wanted $500,000.

Officials say Ali never spoke to the juror. Nur believed Ali and relayed the information to another co-defendant, Abdiaziz Farah, who allegedly agreed to get the money for the bribe. On June 2nd, Farah told Nur to meet him at Said Farah’s business to pick up the money.

When Nur arrived, Said Farah brought him a cardboard box containing $200,000. Later that day, Nur said he met Ali in a parking lot in Bloomington and gave her the cardboard box containing the cash. Ali allegedly took the cash out of the box and put it into a Hallmark gift bag before dropping it off at the juror’s house.

A sentencing date wasn’t immediately set.

___